I will sing mercy and judgement: &c *  
KING david's VOW FOR REFORMATION of Himself. his Family. his Kingdom *  
Delivered in twelve sermons before the Prince his Highness upon Psalm 101 *  
By George Hakewill Dr. in Divinity *  
London printed for Matthew Lownes 1621. *   

TO THE PRINCE his Highness, my gracious Lord and Master.  
WHat hath heretofore been presented to your Highness' ear, I here make bold (with some little change) to present afresh to your eye: that you may behold at one view the entire body of those discourses which were delivered disjointly and by piecemeal; as also that you may revise that at leisure (if aught therein shall be thought worth revising) which was sometimes of necessity shuffled up in haste, though I must confess to mine own comfort and your honour, never heard but with singular attention; and lastly, that I may serve your Highness in somewhat, as well absent as present▪ specially now that your frequent presence with his Majesty enforceth your often absence from your Family.  
I adventure then, most noble Prince, to unfold and lay before your view the Vow of DAVID (as seasonable I hope to the times, as suitable to the person) for the reformation and government of himself, his household and State; whether made before his coming to the Crown, or newly upon it, it is not certain to define, nor very material to know: once we are sure, it was DAVID'S Vow: which one Motive me thinks were of weight sufficient to stirre-up all Christian Princes (specially such as profess the defence of the Christian faith) to a serious meditation thereon, even in that it was DAVID'S Vow; who so lived and so died, as never Prince (I think, before him nor perhaps since him) so joined together Valour and Virtue, Courage and Humility, Policy and Piety, Thrift and Bounty, Solemnity and Devotion, Greatness and Goodness.  
Without flattering the present times, I might safely and justly say unto you, Et Pater Aeneas, & avun●ulus excitet Hector.  
The former of which (as the world well knoweth) hath added to his practice singular precepts of this kind; by which he as much surpasseth other Kings, as Kings do ordinary men, or men the brute creatures. Yet I thought it not amiss to add thereunto the practice and precepts of that King who received such a testimony from the mouth of God as never did any; and far surpassed that, in real acts, which Xenophon of Cyrus conceived only in imagination.  
This King than if you please to propose to yourself as a pattern, and his Vow as a rule, we may by God's help one day promise to ourselves another Charlemagne, or rather the perfections of all the Edward's & Henry's, & james your renowned progenitors united in one Charles: and, your proceeding and ending answering your gracious beginnings and virtuous disposition (which we all hope and pray for) we may rest assured thereof.  
For the effecting of which, you cannot do better than perform in deed what you have chosen for your word, Si vis omnia subijcere, teipsum subijce rationi; which is truly to be a King. For, in so doing you will value Sovereignty, not by impunity of doing evil, but power of doing good; and in attaining it▪ only be enabled for the doing of that good which before you desired.  
And if this poor Work of mine, or any my endeavours, either have or shall any way conduce to the furtherance of that public and important work, I shall therein reap a sufficient reward both of my service and travails; accounting it my greatest happiness on earth to have been counted worthy to be  
Your Highness' first-sworne Chaplain, ever attending your Commands, GEORGE HAKEWILL.   

To the PRINCE his Family.  
YOU, it was, mine Honourable and worthy Friends, to whom (next after our Gracious Master) these ensuing Sermons were first and chiefly directed: You may justly then claim a part in them: and I wish they may prove as fruitful unto you, as they were intended. Sure I am, they will not prove unfruitful, if you compose yourselves to the Glass they hold forth, striving to present you such to your Master, as they represent to you; that is, such as seek not to rise, save to get the vantage-ground for the doing of more good: such, as prefer their Masters good before their own gain; their Master's safety before their own ease, their Master's credit before their own advancement: such, as in preferring suits aim not at their private ends through the sides of the Public, nor use fair pretences for the compassing of foul projects or the smothering of honest motions; nor, lastly, look so much to the purse and power of Petitioners, as to their worths and necessities.  
A Master you have, born (I hope) in a happy hour for the good of the Christian world: of whom it may be truly said, 
Antevenit sortem meritis, virtutibus annos,  
Ingenio formam, relligione genus▪   
Who not only rewards and cherishes virtue, but traceth out the path thereof before you with his own steps; best deserving that place, by his engraven courtesy and many Princely endowments, which he holds by lineal descent. Why then should any seek that favou● in the way of baseness and sycophancy, which may more easily be won in the plain and safe way of virtue and honesty?  
Provocations to vice (I know) are not wanting in the place wherein ●on live: yet, seeing a religious Nehemiah may be found in Artaxerxes Court, ● Daniel in Nebuchadnezzars, a joseph in Pharaohs, and some faithful Christians even in Nero's house; what may we there expect, where from the Chiefest are so many encouragements to piety? in that Family, whose Head (I dare say) rather glories in being a member of the true Church, than the Second in the Kingdom; rather in being baptised into the religion he professeth, than in being descended from the royal stock of so many famous Kings: and where religion is built up (be it spoken without disparagement of other men's labours, or relation to mine own) by as sufficient Master-workmen in their kinds▪ as the Land affords; not thrusting themselves into the Place, but all of them culled out and called thither: not posting to Preferment by indirect means; but, like sacred Lamps, spending themselves to give you light, well testified by your singular respect towards them.  
Of myself, or this ensuing Work, I will say nothing. By the grace of God I am that I am: and I hope it will appear in this Work, and the effects thereof in you, that his grace in me was not altogether in vain. Whatsoever it be, it is for your use: and whatsoever I am, I am for your service; ready to be employed by the meanest of that Family, for which I da●ly pray as for myself  
A poor member thereof, GEORGE HAKEWIL●.   

The 101. PSALMS, according to our last and most approved Translation: which I chiefly follow in my ensuing Exposition.  
I Will sing of Mercy and judgement: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.  
2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way: O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.  
3 I will set no 
* Heb. thing of Belial.  wicked thing before my eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me.  
4 A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.  
5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look, & a proud heart, will I not suffer.  
6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh 
* Or, perfect in the way.  in a perfect way, he shall serve me.  
7 He that worketh deceit, shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies 
* Heb. shall no● be●stabl●shed.  shall not tarry in my sight.  
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the Land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord.   

Buchanani Paraphrasis.  
PSALMUS CI.  
TE salus rerum cano, qui precanti  
Lenis irarum es, facilisque flecti,  
Impiorum idem tetricus rebelles  
Frangere fastus.  
Huc meae vires vigilant, labores  
Huc ferent omnes, opis in tuae spe●●  
Semper ut castis domus institutis  
Culta nitescat.  
Si salutarem mihi tu serenus  
Porrigis dextram, tibi corde puro  
Serviam; fraudum scelerísque pura  
Serviet aula.  
Nec mihi exemplum statuam sequendum,  
Litibus siquis miseros iniquis  
Vexet, aut causam tenuis clientis  
Prodidit hosti.  
Sponte qui pravis studiis inhaeret,  
Sit procul: saevi sceleris minister  
Candidos nunquam mihi censeatur  
Inter amicos.  
Quisquis incautum lacerat sodalem,  
Clam venenato iaculatus ictu,  
Persequar, plectam, penitúsque ab ima  
Stirpe revellam.  
Nec meae mensae dapibus fruetur  
Mentis elatae tumor, arrogánsque  
Vultus, & cunctos veluti minores  
Lumine spernens.  
Veritas ●●mplex quibus est amori,  
Hos amo, amplector, video libenter:  
His mihi ●eros sociis senectus  
Impleat annos.  
Integer vitae mihi sit minister:  
Tecta non intret mea fraudulentus:  
Nemo mecum intra mea commoretur  
Limina mendax.  
Impios longè (mora nulla) terrae  
Finibus pellam: procul omne monstru●●  
Civitas sancta ut Domini releget  
Flagitioru●●.   

The Analysis of the Psalm.  
  

The principal Contents of the several ensuing Sermons.  

THe first 
1. Sermon upon the first vers. fol. 1.  treats chiefly of the pre-eminence of the book of the Psalms, of the Nature & Conditions of a Vow, of the antiquity & excellency of music, of the divers kinds of Church-music, of the abuse & good use of Songs & singing, of Mercy and justice, requisite in a Prince. Of the person to whom both Songs and Vows are to be devoted, and to whose glory both Mercy and justice are to be administered.  
The second, 
2. Upon the former part of the 2. vers. fol. 38▪  of the necessity of a Magistrates beginning Reformation from his own person, of Wisdom required in him both Civil and Spiritual, of his patience in waiting for the performance of God's promises, of his imploring the assistance of God's Spirit of his Meditation of Mortality.  
The third, 
3. Upon the later part of the 2. vers. fol. 72.  of Idleness, of progress in good duties, of moderation, of the allowance of our own hearts in all our actions, of the perfection of the heart unfoulding itself in Integrity and Sincerity, of the trial of a man's sufficiency for public employment by the menaging of his household affairs, of being the same abroad and at home.  
The fourth, 
4. Upon the former part of the 3. vers. f. 101.  of presumptuous sins, of the sense of the word Belial, of the unlawfulness of Images for religious use, of sundry temptations and enticements by the sense of Seeing.  
The fifth, 
5. Upon the later part of the 3. vers. fol. 120.  of the good use of natural affections in the soul, so they be rightly moderated and applied; of a twofold hatred of malice and zeal, of the hatred of men's evil works, not of their persons, of the hatred of Apostates and Apostasy.  
The sixth, 
6. Upon the 4. vers. fol. 139.  of the frowardness of the heart, in rebellion & repining against God, in harshness and bitterness towards men: of shunning evil company for fear of Suspicion, Infection, Malediction.  
The seaventh, 
7. Upon the former part of the 5. vers. f. 162.  of the virtues and vices of the tongue; of slander in general, of privy slander, of pri●y slander of a man's pretended friend or fellow servant of the putting back and punishing thereof.  
The eighth, 
8. Upon the later part of the 5. vers. fol. 188.  of the affinity between slander and pride, of discovering the secret affections of the heart by outward actions and gestures; in special, the pride of the heart by proud looks, of the proud heart itself, and wherein it consists, of our Prophet's not suffering it as a reasonable man, as a member of the Church, as the Father of a family, as the Sovereign of a kingdom: of his own freeness from it, notwithstanding his great and manifold gifts; and the reasons thereof.  
The ninth, 
9 Upon the 6. vers. fol. 220.  of domination and service, of fidelity in servants; in actions, when a servant doth that which tends not so much to the satisfying of his Masters sensual appetite as his real good; when he prefers his Master's gain, his ease, his liberty, his safety, before his own: secondly, in speeches, by concealing his Master's secrets and imperfections, by giving him (if occasion serve and he be called to it) wholesome and free counsel; of godliness required in a servant as well in regard of his Master as himself: where, by occasion of the proper signification of the word to serve, used in the Text, is added a discourse of the disorder of States by the corruption of judges & under-officers, even when there are good Kings: and lastly, it concludeth with the choice and reward of good servants.  
The tenth, 
10. Upon the 7. vers. fol. 250.  of deceitfulness in general; of deceitfulness of servants in special; how pernicious it is both to themselves and their Masters: of lying; in which are handled the nature and several kinds of Lies, the greatness of the offence how slightly soever we esteem of it, together with the punishment always due unto it, and many times inflicted on it.  
The eleventh, 
11. Upon the former part of the 8. vers. fol. 279.  of diligence, dispatch and constancy in punishing malefactors, at his very entrance to the Crown; yet not without advisement and discretion: of three cases which by some are held unlawful, in which it is lawful to destroy; in defence of a man's own person, in a just and lawful war, and by the sword of the public Magistrate.  
The twelfth, 
12. Upon the later part of the 8. vers. fol. 308.  of three unlawful kinds of destroying, by some held lawful: namely selfe-homicide, in Duel, for reason of State without due order of law, or course of justice: of the right object and unpartiality of his justice; and lastly of his vowing to purge the City of the Lord (whereby is meant jerusalem) first, for example to the whole Realm, it being the Metropolis and head City of the Kingdom, as also and principally by reason of the service of God and exercise of religion, which by divine ordinance was in a special manner tied unto it.  
I have the rather noted the distinction of these Sermons, because the third and sixth are not sufficiently distanced from their next precedents.    

ALia sunt quae Prophetae tradunt, alia quae Historia, Lex quoque alia, Proverbiorum etiam alia commonitio: Psalmorum verò liber quaecunque utilia sunt ex omnibus contin●t. Futura praedicit, veterum gesta commemorat, ●egem viventibus tribuit, gerendorum statuit modum; &, ut breviter dicam, communis quidam bonae docotrinae thesaurus est, apt singulis necessaria subministrans. Aug. in prologo in librum psalmorum.  
THey be of one kind which the prophets deliver, of another which the History, of another which the Law, and of another which the proverbs warn us of: but, the book of the psalms contains in it whatsoever is profitable in any of them. It foretells things to come, it records acts past, it sets a law to things present, and prescribes an order for things to be done; in a word, it is the common treasury of wholesome doctrine, properly administering necessaries to each particular.   

Psal. 101. ver. 1. I will sing mercy and judgement: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.  
AS the whole Scripture is by inspiration from God: so this Book of the Psalms seemeth to challenge a kind of pre-eminence above the rest; inasmuch as the Author of it was not only a Prophet and a King, but a man after Gods own heart, a Figure of Christ; or, as Euthymius speaks, primi regis & ●or, & lingua, & calamus, the tongue, and pen, and heart, of the King of Heaven.  
The several passages of this book are more frequently and particularly quoted by Christ and his Apostles, then of any other of the old Testament. It was, and still is, more usually both sung and read, not only in the jewish Synagogues, but Christian Assemblies, as well by the People as the Minister; & that with more outward reverence then any other part of holy Writ. It is put for all the Books of the old Testament, as they are differenced from the law of Moses and the Prophets, Luke 24. 44. And lastly, more Sermons, Commentaries, Meditations, Expositions, Enarrations, upon it have been made and published, as well by the jewish Rabbins, as by the Doctors of the Christian Church, then upon any other scripture whatsoever. Nay, the very Turks themselves swear as solemnly by the Psalms of David, as by the Alcoran of Mahomet. And in truth, he that hath either practically tried, or shall duly consider, what a rich store-house it is of all manner of Prayers, Precepts, Exhortations and Comforts, how this one celestial Fountain yieldeth all good necessarily to be known, or done, or had; what a familiar introduction it is to beginners, a mighty augmentation of virtue & knowledge in such as are entered before, a strong confirmation to the most perfect; may easily conceive the reason why it hath in all Ages been esteemed even of the best and most learned, as a rare and precious jewel, worthy to be laid up in that Persian Casket embroidered with gold and pearl, which Alexander reserved for Homer's Iliads. In regard whereof, our good King Alured translated the Psalter himself into his Saxon tongue: and one of the Emperors caused this Book to be bound up in a little volume by itself, for the special and daily use of himself and his attendants, to serve them as a Manual, & always to attend them in their running Library. And as I would not sooner commend the reading of any book to a Courtier then this: so would I specially commend this Psalm to the careful reading and serious meditation both of my Gracious Master the Prince, and his religious Followers. They shall both find their duties lively expressed in it, as in a mirror, howbeit it were indeed first composed rather to express the former than the later, and my present choice of it be chiefly intended and directed to that purpose.  
This Psalm, by the consent of Writers, is a vow of David: whether made before or after his coming to the Crown, it is not certain, neither skilleth it much; but, that it is a vow, all agree. Since then, for the Person, the maker of it was both of understanding and power to make it; since, for the Matter, the thing therein vowed is both lawful and possible; since, for the Manner, he made it both deliberately and freely with advice and without constraint; and lastly, since the End of it was to serve both as a bridle to prevent and redress sin, and as a spur to stir him up and incite him to virtue, and keep him close to the duties therein promised: we are to hold it not only for a warrantable but a commendable vow; nor only commendable in David, but with like commendation imitable by us in like case. And as David made this vow, so had he special care to pay it, 2. Sam. 8. 15. willing others to do the like, Psal. 50; it being indeed better (as his Son tells us, Eccles. 5. 5) not at all to vow, than to vow and not perform. Yet in wicked vows, as that of the jews, Acts 23. or in rash vows, as that of Herod & jephte, that of the Canonists holds true; In malis promissis rescinde fidem, in turpi voto muta decretum: In wicked promises hold not thy word, in shameful vows change thy purpose: whereupon St. Hierome worthily censures jephte, that he was in vovendo stultus, in praestando impius; naught in making such a vow as he did, but worse in performing it.  
The thing here vowed is either general, in the first verse: or particular, touching his own Person, from the second verse to the fifth; touching his Attendants, Counsellors and Officers, from the fifth to the eight; and lastly, touching the Church and Commonwealth, in the last.  
The matter by him vowed in general is contained in the first verse; I will sing mercy and judgement: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. Wherein, without any curious descant or division, we may observe first the manner of expressing this vow: it is by way of singing, which implieth cheerfulness and alacrity: for, Is any merry, let him sing? james 5. And, How should we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Psal. 137. As God loves a cheerful giver: so doth he a cheerful vower. Secondly, the ditty, or rather the burden of this song: Mercy and judgement. Thirdly, the Person to whom he both sings and vows: it is the Lord.  
First then of his manner of expressing this vow; I will sing. As ancient and manifold as is the use of Music, 
Gen. 4. 21.  so excellent was David in the use thereof; a thing which delighteth all Ages, and beseemeth all estates; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent being added to things of greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action. It is apt both to quicken the spirits, & to allay that which is too eager; able both to move and moderate all affections: yea, such is the force and efficacy thereof upon that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think, that the soul of man is composed of harmony. Which being (to speak properly) of high and low in sounds, a due proportionable disposition, whether it be by instrument or by voice; our Prophet, the sweet Singer of Israel, having singular knowledge in them both, as also in the art of Poetry, judged them all, as very useful in civil affairs, so in sacred actions and religious exercises even in the house of God itself not unuseful; leaving behind him to that purpose a number of divinely indicted poems (howbeit their metre in the original be now unknown) and adding unto his poetry melody, both vocal and instrumental, by ordaining some of the Levites skilled in music to praise the Lord by singing and playing on instruments, to the number of four thousand, 1. Chro. 23. 5. who, divided into several companies, by course served the Lord in his Sanctuary for the raising up of men's hearts, and sweetening their affections towards God.  
The instruments they used in praising the Lord are most of them reckoned up in the last Psalm: all which may be reduced to two sorts, whereof one is called Negenoth, such as made a sound by touching; the other, Nechiloth, such as being hollow made a sound by breathing. Sometime the musical instrument began, and the singing voice followed, and then the song was called Canticum Psalmi: sometime again the song was first sung with the voice, and the musical instrument followed, and then it is called Psalmus Cantici: of which sort it seems was this Psalm, both sung privately by David for his better remembrance thereof, and by him appointed to be sung publicly in the Congregation; as for the good of others, so thereby to oblige himself the more strictly to the performance thereof.  
Before David's time this singing of sacred hymns was in use, as may appear by the songs of Moses and Miriam, Exod. 15. and of Deborah and Barach, judg. 5. After him, his Son's songs were no less than a thousand and five, 1. Kings 4. 32. And one special one of his we yet enjoy at this day, by the name of Canticum canticorum, the Song of songs; setting forth unto us the mystical union between Christ & his Church. Christ himself and his Disciples, according to the custom of the jews, sung a Psalm, Mat. 26. 30. Paul and Silas sung in prison, Acts 16. 25. And, to show that it was a duty to continue in the Church, 
Eph. 5. 19  both S. Paul and S. james not only exhort us to it, 
Col. 3 16.  but give us rules for the practice of it. 
james 5. 13.  In consideration whereof, the Church of Christ doth likewise at this present day retain it as an ornament to God's service, and an help both to our edification and devotion: neither can they well be excused from profaneness, who either scorn to do it themselves, or scorn others for the doing of it. I will shut up this point with an excellent speech of S. Basils', touching this use of singing psalms in Christian Families or Congregations. Whereas (saith he) the holy Spirit saw, that mankind is unto virtue hardly drawn, and that righteousness is the less accounted of, by reason of the proneness of our affections to that which delighteth; it pleased the wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure, which, mingled with heavenly mysteries, causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ●are, to convey as it were by stealth the treasure of good things into man's mind. To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of the Psalms devised for us, that they which are either in years but tender and green, or touching perfection of virtue as yet not grown to ripeness, might, when they think they sing, learn. O the conceit of that heavenly Teacher! which hath by his skill found out a way, that, doing those things wherein we delight, we may also learn that whereby we profit. And so I come from our Prophet's manner of expressing his vow (I will sing) to the burden of his song, Mercy and judgement. I will sing Mercy and judgement.  
The ditty or subject-matter of his song he promiseth should be modest, and grave, and useful; not light and vain, or unsavoury and fabulous, much less filthy and unclean, fit for nothing; but, as a sacrifice offered to the Devil, to defile the mouth and heart of the singer, to corrupt others, and to offend chaste ears. For, if evil words corrupt good manners, much more lewd songs; which, the more artificial they are, the more dangerous and pestilent are their effects; the pleasantness of their tune with more facility and less suspicion conveying their poison unto the soul. Use not the company of a woman that is a singer and a dancer, neither hear her, lest thou be taken by her craftiness, Ecclus. 9 4. To which purpose it was not unfitly spoken by the Roman Historian touching Sempronia a gentlewoman of Rome, 
Sallust.  that she was taught psallere & saltare elegantiùs quam modestam decebat, to sing and dance more gracefully than became a modest woman. Besides, these amorous and wanton songs and sonnets, as they serve the Devils turn to convey poison into the mind: so do they abate the edge of the masculine vigour thereof, bending and turning it by degrees from a manly martial disposition to an effeminate softness.  
Enervant animos cytharae, cantusque, lyraeque.  
Witness the great Alexander; who among other monuments of Troy being presented with Paris his Lute, replied, Achilles cytharam mallem. Witness Themistocl●s that famous warrior; who, being desired at a banquet to touch a Lute, answered, that he could not fiddle, but he could make of a little Town a great City. And lastly, let Nero himself be a witness hereof; who, seeing apparent death before his eyes, cried out, Qualis artifex per●o, in regard of his extraordinary skill in singing.  
Now, as the matter of our Prophet's song was not fabulous or wanton: so was it not defamatory or libelling stuff, impeaching any man's reputation, such as the drunkeards made upon him, Psal. 69. 12; a lash which the greatest Princes cannot avoid, and the best sometimes feel: but the known authors thereof are by so much the more severely to be censured, as they deeply wound, and are hardly discovered. Finally, the matter of his song was not his own triumphs and victories, though they were many and glorious, aswel against strangers abroad, as rebels at home; he left that to others, Saul hath slain his thousand, and David his ten thousand. And thus having taken a brief view what the matter of our Prophet's song was not, though too too rife nowadays both in Court, and City, and Country; let us now consider what it was: Mercy & judgement. And first take them jointly: not Mercy without judgement, nor judgement without Mercy, but Mercy and judgement both together, like Rahel and Leah, which twain did build the house of Israel; or like Moses and Elias at the transfiguration of Christ, whereof the one was the meekest man upon earth, and the other the most zealous of the Prophets.  
As the badge of the Ship S. Paul●ailed-in ●ailed-in was Castor and Pollux, two twins; so the badge of this Psalm is Mercy and judgement, inseparable companions: of whom it may be said, as our Prophet sometime spoke of Saul and jonathan, they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided. The two brightest Stars they are in the firmament of Majesty; the two fairest Flowers, and choicest jewels in the Imperial Crown; like the Carnation and the Lily, the Ruby and the Saphire, or the Carbuncle and the Diamond, yielding a mutual and interchangeable justre each to other, They resemble not unfitly the two supporters of the King's arms, or the two Seraphins stretching out their golden wings over the Propitiatory; or the white and red Rose in the same Escutchion.  
We read, 
1 Kings 7.  that Solomon set up two goodly pillars in the porch of the Temple, the one called jachin, the other Boaz; which signify Stability and Strength: such pillars of the State are Mercy and judgement. The Throne of the King is borne up by them, as Salomon's was with Lions of Ivory on each side. Therefore, as in one place it is said, that the Throne is established by justice, 
pro. 16. 12.  so in another, that it is upheld with Mercy: 
pro. 20. 28.  justice being as the bones and sinews in the body politic, and Mercy as the veins & arteries. They are the two hands of Action, the two eyes of Virtue, and the two wings of Honour. And as the eyes, if they be rightly set, do both look one way: so do Mercy and judgement; however in the apprehension of the vulgar they seem to look contrary ways. And as the Treble and the Base accord best in Music: so do they in managing the Commonwealth. Wherefore David promiseth to make them both ●ound tuneable in his song without jar or discord: I will sing Mercy and judgement.  
The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction. Vespasian asked him what was Nero's overthrow: he answered; Nero could touch and tune the Harp well, but in government sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, and sometimes to let them down too low; thereby intimating, that he applied Caustics and Corrosives where gentle Lenitives would have served the turn, & again he applied Lenitives where Corrosives were needful. Sometimes he administered justice without Mercy, and sometimes Mercy without justice; justice without Mercy being nothing else but cruelty, like Esau red and rough, bitter as wormwood; and Mercy without justice, but fond pity & foolish partiality. As Mercy then serves to abate the edge and rigour of justice: so doth justice, to quicken the slowness, and sharpen the dulness of Mercy. As Mercy without justice is contemned: so justice without Mercy is hated.  
Astronomers conceive, that the Crystalline Sphere, which they suppose to be the waters above the heavens (mentioned in the first of Genesis) is set next the first Mover, for allaying the heat thereof; which, by reason of the incomprehensible swiftness of its motion, would otherwise set the whole world on fire. This I take to be but a fancy of theirs: but Mercy, I am sure, is set so near justice, for the cooling and tempering of it. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, they are both an abomination to the Lord, Pro. 17. 15. Now, he that pretends Mercy, but without justice, will be sure to justify the wicked; and again, he that pretends justice, but without Mercy, cannot but condemn the righteous: but the right mixture and true temper of both, justifies the righteous, and condemns the wicked. Which temper is by S. Paul commended to the public Magistrate, Rom. 13: If thou do well, he is the Minister of God for thy good; but, to take vengeance of thee, if thou do evil. And by S. Peter in his first Epistle and second chapter, They are sent of God for the punishment of evil doers, and the praise of them that do well. All precepts touching supreme Governors are in effect comprehended in these two Remembrances; Memento quoth es homo, and Memento quod es Deus, or vice Dei: Remember thou art a man, remember thou art a God, or in stead of God; the one to bridle their power, the other their will. From the former of which issue the acts of Mercy, and from the other of justice: nay, the very remembrance that they are vice-gods, is sufficient to put them in mind of both, inasmuch as Gracious and righteous is the Lord, and all his paths are Mercy and Truth, Psal. 25. He hath not one path of Mercy, and another of Truth: but all his paths are Mercy and Truth; like Crimson and White Silk twisted together, or woven one within the other. His red Cross of justice is ever set in the white streamer of Mercy; as the rod of A●ron and the pot of Manna were by his commandment laid up in the same Ark.  
Through the thickest & blackest cloud of his justice always appears some beams or sparks of Mercy: and the clearest sunshine of his Mercy is overshadowed with showers of justice. What infinite Mercy did he show in the redemption of mankind, when he might justly have tumbled them down, as he did the Apostate Angels to the bottomless pit of hel● and yet withal, what infinite justice did he express in the same action, in laying the sins of the whole world, and the punishment due to sin, upon the shoulders of his innocent, bestbeloved, and only-begotten Son! And thus did his wisdom find out a way for the making of his Mercy and Truth one path: much like Zal●uchus, who showed his justice in causing one of his sons eyes to be put out for committing adultery, according to a law newly before made by himself; and his Mercy, in putting out one of his own for the sparing of the other of his sons, which the law also required to have been put out. Hence S. Peter represents God unto us both as a Father and as a judge, in one & the same verse, 1. 1. 17; to show, that he is merciful as a Father, and righteous as a judge. So ought his Vicegerents here on earth; having therefore a sceptre given them to put them in mind of Mercy, & a sword that they forget not justice; Scarlet and Purple to think upon justice, and white Miniver or Ermines to remember Mercy: that so the people committed to their charge may sing with joyful & thankful hearts, Mercy and Truth are met together; 
● psal. 85.  Righteousness & Peace have kissed each other. And themselves at last may find Salomon's saying true; He that followeth after Righteousness and Mercy, 
pro. 21. 21.  shall find life, righteousness and glory: as holy job did, who in his prosperity did not only put on justice as a robe and as a crown, by breaking the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucking the prey out of his teeth; but, expressed works of Mercy, in being eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and a father to the poor, job. 29. 14. 15. 16. 17.  
Having thus handled these two Virtues jointly together, let us now take a view of them single & apart: for, though they neither be, nor can be, really and in action severed each from other, yet may they by conceit and imaginary abstraction. First then of Mercy, because it is both here and elsewhere set in the first place: and that not casually, but of purpose, and by due desert; as Peter is commonly first named of the Apostles, like the Foreman of the jury, having a primacy of order before them, though not a supremacy of jurisdiction over them. And as Mercy is here set in the first pl●ce: so shall the Sentence of Mercy & Absolution be first pronounced at the last Day. And it is a laudable custom of Princes, at their first entrance to their Kingdoms, to show Mercy, by hearing the mourning of the Prisoner, and delivering the children of death, by losing the bands of wickedness, by taking off the heavy burdens, by letting the oppressed go free, and by breaking every yoke of former extortions. Thus, our Prophet himself, as soon as the Crown was settled on his head, made enquiry if there remained yet alive any of the house of Saul, on whom he might show Mercy, 2. Samuel 9 O how fair a thing is this Mercy in the time of anguish and trouble! It is like a cloud of rain that cometh in the time of drought. But this Mercy, here spoken of in the first part of our Prophet's song, stretcheth further; unfolding itself in Clemency, in Courtesy, and in Compassion: In Clemency, by pardoning malefactors; in Compassion, by relieving the afflicted; in Courtesy, towards all. Of this later I shall hereafter have occasion to speak, in handling those words, A froward heart shall depart from me. For the present than it shall suffice to commend unto your consideration and practice the two former; Compassion and Clemency.  
Compassion is a virtue, saith Aquinas, non quâ mo●us est sensitivi appetitussed intellectivi, a ratione directus & dirigens inferioris appetitus motum; not as it moves the sensitive appetite but the rational, being directed by reason, and directing the motion of the inferior appetite. It consisteth in relieving the afflicted, and righting the oppressed; by receiving their petitions, by hearing their grievances, by granting their reasonable suits, by dispatch of justice, 
Cap. 32. 11.  by being unto them (as the Prophet Esay speaks) a hiding place from the wind, a refuge from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a wearisome land. It was well said of Augustus, that Petitions should not be given to a Prince, as meat to an Elephant that one is afraid of.  
To these hero●call works of Mercy, may be added, as peculiar to a Prince, the easing of the Subject from the burden of immoderate tribute; the protecting of them from the rapine and spoil as well of homebred Pirates and Robbers, as foreign nations; the redeeming of poor captives, especially from the slavery of the professed enemies of JESUS CHRIST; the erecting of Hospitals for fatherless children, wounded soldiers, decayed tradesmen, and aged or impotent people. In which regard, james the fifth, King of Scotland, was worthily termed, The poor man's King.  
Now, as Compassion thus shows is self in relieving the afflicted, and righting the oppressed: so doth Clemency, in winking at some faults, in pardoning others where is hope of amendment, in providing the punishment exceed not the proportion of the offence; and, lastly, in pronouncing Sentence of death with a kind of reluctancy and unwillingness, casting a severe eye upon the example, but a pitiful upon the person: And heerin doth Clemency include Compassion.  
It is an ungentle and inhuman thing for a Prince, delectarisono catenarum, to delight in the rattling of of chains and fetters; as a Carter, that is never well, longer than he is hearing the lash of his whip. But a right noble disposition it was in Augustus, quem dare poenas apparebat cum exigeret, who seemed himself to suffer when he inflicted punishment on others; and in Vespasian, qui neque caede cuiusquam laetatus, iustis supplicijs illacrymavit etiam & ingemuit, who was so far from delight in the death of any, that he often wept and groaned even at just and necessary executions; and of Nero himself at his first coming to the Empire, if he dissembled not: who being importuned by Burrus to sign a warrant for the execution of certain malefactors, his answer was, O utinam literas nescirem! I could wish I had never learned to write or read. But above all, Nihil quicqu● gloriosius principe impune laeso, there is nothing more honourable for a Prince, than sometimes to pass over injuries against his own Person. The patience of Augustus herein was rare and singular: probrosis in se dict is arrisit, he made himself merry with reproachful speeches touching himself; therein manifesting as his Clemency, so also his Wisdom: in as much as convitia si excandescas agnita videntur, spreta exolescunt: railings, where they move choler, seem acknowledged; but contemned, they vanish. That memorable speech of our late famous Queen to this purpose will never be forgotten; that, next the Scriptures, she knew no Book did her so much good as the often reading of Se●eca de Clementia: wherein she was taught like a good Chirurgeon not to cut off any member, when any other remedy would serve the turn; and then to do it not without sighs and tears.  
These be the divers tunes and strains, the several notes and steps of mercy's Song; than which nothing is more pleasing in the ears of Men and Angels, nothing more acceptable unto God. For, though he profess, that he preferreth justice before Sacrifice, Pro. 21. 3; yet of Mercy he pronounceth, that Sacrifice is no way comparable unto it: I will have Mercy & not Sacrifice, Mat. 9 13. Nay, of Mercy S. james testifieth, that it rejoiceth or glorieth against judgement. And our Prophet, that as the Faithfulness of God, which is a part of his justice, reacheth to the Clouds; so doth his Mercy to the Heavens, far above the Clouds, Psal. 36. 5. Where there is no Mercy to be hoped for, there men grow obstinate and desperate: but, where Mercy is expected, there is Reverence and a filial Fear. There is Mercy with thee that thou mayst be ●eared, Psal. 130. 4.  
And if Mercy breed Fear, much more Love, the most kindly & proper fruit thereof, the surest guard of Prince's persons and estates. Castles and Fortresses, walled Towns, stored Arcenals and Armouries, a Navy of Ships, Troops of Horse, thousands of Foot, a mass of Treasure, Ordinance and Artillery, cannot afford him so safe a defence in the day of trouble, as the Love & Prayers of his Subjects, purchased by dealing mercifully with them. As than he expects Mercy at the hands of God: so let him deal mercifully with those whom God hath put into his hands. And as the Mercy of God is over all his works: so let the mercy of his most lively image here upon earth shine above all his other virtues; above them, I say, but not without them: for, though Mercy be here set in the first place, yet is it coupled with judgement, as milk and blood that mingled stood. judgement, like another jacob, lays hold upon mercy's heel: and though Mercy, like Pharez, be first borne, yet instantly follows judgement, like Zarah, with his red thread about his arm. Nay, without judgement, Mercy cannot subsist; in as much as by due execution of justice upon particular members Mercy is showed in preserving the whole body. And as filial Fear is procured by Mercy; so is unfeigned Love by such justice.. As Mercy then is the more beautiful, the more comely and amiable Virtue: so is justice at times the more necessary.  
It hath long been, and still is, a Question controversed between Physicians and Philosophers, whether the Brain or the Heart be the more principal member; in as much as the one is the fountain of life, the other of sense: so me thinks, when I compare these two Virtues together, Mercy is like the Brain qualifying the immoderate heat of those spirits that are bred in the heart; but justice, like the heart itself, the fountain of those spirits. Now, because I am to speak of the administration hereof in handling the last verse of this Psalm, I will pass to my third and last part proposed in my Text; the Person to whom this Song and this Vow are addressed, and that is the Lord: Tibi O jehova psallam, to thee, O jehovah, will I sing.  
This Name jehovah, anciently termed Nomen tetragrammaton, the name of four letters, was to the jews so venerable, that they never durst pronounce it (as fearing to pollute it with their lips) but Adonai (which also signifieth Lord) in stead thereof. Of all the Appellations given to God in holy Scripture, it is alone reserved as peculiar to himself, and never imparted to any Creature: neither do we find it given to God till he had created man; thereby to teach us, that as man was by him made a subordinate Lord of the other Creatures: so was he the independent and absolute LORD both of him and them.  
To this great jehovah then, this most Sovereign Lord, this Lord of lords it is, that David addresseth his Song and his Vow. He was himself a great Lord, the grand Commander of a mighty and populous Nation: yet he acknowledgeth this Lord to be by infinite degrees higher and greater than himself, and himself to be but a worm in comparison of Him. First then, of his singing to this Lord, then of his vowing unto him, and lastly of his vowing and singing unto him Mercy and justice..  
We ought in our singing n●t so much to respect the delighting of ourselves or others with the sweet tuneablenesse of the voice, as to do worship to God by it, and to edify our consciences. It is both rhyme and reason, 
Non Vox, sed Votum; non chordula Musica, sed Cor;  
Non Clamans, sed Amans, cantat in aure Dei.  
The Heart, not Harp; Devotion, not the Voice;  
The Lover, not the Loud, GOD's ears rejoice.   
Not so much the Lutestring, as the Heartstring; nor so much the shrill Voice, as the zealous Affection, sounds in the ears of God. And hereunto accords the Apostle; Singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, Eph. 5. 19 And again; Singing with a grace in your hearts to the Lord, Colos. 3. 16: not to yourselves, but to the Lord; or, at leastwise, rather to the Lord, than to yourselves.  
Now, as he addresseth his Song, so doth he his Vow unto the same Lord, according to his own Counsel; Vow & perform to the Lord your God, Psal. 76. 11. The reason is, because all Invocation is due unto God; and a Vow is always joined with invocation, either for the obtaining the good we desire, or the avoiding the evil we fear. Besides, it is God only that knows the secret motions of the heart. As then in that regard we pray unto him alone: so unto him alone are we to direct our Vows, who alone is able either to punish us if we break them, or to reward us if we keep them.  
Lastly, a Vow being nothing else but a promissory oath: as we are to swear by none but God; so are we to vow to none but God. And, as the properties of an oath are, Truth, judgement and justice: so are they also of a Vow: judgement, for the avoiding of rash vows; justice, for the avoiding of wicked vows; and Truth, for the performance of such as are neither wicked nor rash, but are made upon good advice, and tend to good ends.  
Finally, our Prophet both sings and vows Mercy and judgement to the Lord; thereby acknowledging GOD, as his guide both in the entrance and accomplishment of all actions, so in special of Mercy and justice; and that he would exercise these imperial Virtues not so much to content himself, or to gratify men, as to please and glorify God: not so much because men expected it, or commended it, as because God commanded it, and would take account of it. Concerning actions of like nature done for humane respects, the Lord hath said, they have their reward, Mat. 6. 2; that is, acceptance, honour and reverence from men, because they are done to men: but the justice & Mercy, that have God for their object, and are referred to his glory, and set him before them who is the searcher of hearts; they, I say, receive their recompense from God. Many times it falleth out, that the Prince causeth a wicked person to be executed: the deed is good; but perhaps he is moved thereunto rather with desire of revenge, or importunity of suitors, then with the detestation and vileness of the fact: this work, I say, in itself is just; for, the malefactor by his sin deserved the punishment: yet he that doth it is notwithstanding unjust. So much doth virtue desire to be cherished for her own sake, or rather so much is God, the fountain of all virtue, jealous of his honour, and jealous also of our love, that he will have every thing, to the end it may be good indeed, referred unto himself, and to the ends that he hath appointed: as indeed all is taken and cometh from him alone, and therefore should be referred to him and his glory only; as the rivers, derived from the sea by secret veins & channels, disburden themselves with full mouth into the same again, Eccles. 1. 7.  
To be short: the Prince above all should refer and approve his actions to God, seeing that God alone, and not man, hath set him up; and seeing also, that he is not to be judged by men, but by God. And now to conclude this point: great and excellent things, as we see, are comprehended under these two terms, Mercy and judgement: which are indeed the very sum and abridgement of all that Kings should either learn or do. And, seeing they are of so deep reach, and extend so far as they do, we may thereby plainly perceive, that it is no light charge To be a King; neither is it an art easily learned, To rule well.  
Let not Mercy and Truth forsake thee: bind them on thy neck, and write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man, Pro. 3. 3.   

Verse 2. I will behave myself wisely in ● perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me! I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.  
AS, before, he promised cheerfulness in singing; so here he promiseth wisdom in behaviour: so that he would be both merry and wise. In the former verse we have the general of his Vow: here he comes to the particulars; and begins first with himself, in this verse and the two next ensuing, what he would be in respect of his own life and conversation. Neither is it to be omitted without observation, that, before he come to deal more specially about his public Charge, he first promiseth the orderly government of his own Person. He knew full well, that it was the duty of such as have the guidance of others, to guide themselves aright, if they meant by their counsel and authority to keep them in good order. For, as Poesy is a speaking kind of painting, and painting a dumb poesy: so is the law a dumb Magistrate, and a good Magistrate a speaking law. And indeed this is the common course: Men desire to find occasions, whereupon to refuse or withstand the means ordained for their good: if they can espy any faults in such as teach or govern them, they presently imagine, that such should neither reproove nor punish them. And, to say truth, with what countenance can we rebuke or chastise that in others, which ourselves make no conscience to commit▪ Quintilian defines an Orator to be vir bonus dicendi peritus, an honest man skilful in speaking: and we may define a good Prince vir bonus regendi peritus, an honest man skilful in governing: which as it procures a reverence & credit to his place and person; so doth it strength and authority to his laws and admonitions.  
Tum pietate gravem, ●ut meritis, si forte virum quem  
Conspexêre, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant.  
Ill eregit dict is animos, et pector a mulcet.  
To which effect, job speaks of himself not vauntingly or vainly, but to comfort himself in his bitter affliction, and to clear himself from false accusation; The young men saw me, and ●idde themselves, the aged arose and stood up unto me: Men gave ear and waited, and held their tongue at my counsel. After my words they replied not, and my talk dropped upon them: and they waited upon me as for the rain and they opened their mouth as for the later rain. Which power he got in men's minds, not so much by his greatness as by his goodness. The Evangelists tell us of our Saviour, that he spoke as one having authority; and the rather, no doubt, because he did as he spoke: whereas the pharisees lost their authority, because they taught and did not. He then that expects and desires, the people should do as he adviseth or commandeth, must command in the style of Abimelech, judg. 9: What you have seen me do, make haste, and do like me; and advise in the style of josuah, I and my house will serve the Lord, josuah 24. 15.  
When Alexander would have punished one for his Piracy, he told him to his face, that himself was the Arch-pirate of the world. Princes as they act their parts upon an high●stage, so is the least error in their action presently discerned; it being in every man's eye. A small fault in them is as a mole or wart in the midst of the face, which cannot be hid. And as men most greedily gaze upon the Sun when it is eclipsed: so do the multitude more willingly discourse of the imperfections and vices of their Leaders, then of their virtues; thereby hoping to justify themselves, & to scape unpunished. The best way then to have a Law well executed, is for the Author of it first to keep it himself in his own Person.  
— Tunc observantior aequi  
Fit populus, nec ferre negat, cum viderit ipsum  
Authorem parêre sibi:—  
— nec sic inflectere sensus  
Hum●nos edicta valent, ut vita regentis.  
There the people readily obey, and follow after; willingly yielding their necks to the yoke, where they see the Magistrate go before in the observation of his own Edicts. Neither do any persuasions or threats prevail with them so much as that; it being the nature of man rather to be led than drawn: to be led by reason or example, then to be drawn by penalty and force of law. And because it is to the Vulgar difficult to conceive the reason even of reasonable Commands, the greatest part have ever been led rather by example then by reason; the Lives of their Superiors being by them esteemed the fairest & safest Copy they can rule their actions by. Vita principis (saith Pliny the younger) censura est, eaque perpetua; ad hanc dirigimur, ad hanc convertimur: He might have said, in stead of Censura, Cynosura; in as much as the life of the Prince is the load-star of the Commonwealth, upon which all men fix their eyes, and shape their course by it. I will conclude this point with the grave speech of the heathen Orator, not unworthy a Christian pen: Qu● perniciosius de republica merentur vitosi principes, quòd non solum vitia concipiant ipsi, sed ea infundant in civitatem; neque solum obsunt, quòd ipsi corrumpuntur, sed etiam quòd corrumpunt, pl●sque exemplo quam peccato nocent: By so much the worse do vicious Princes deserve of the State they govern, in as much as they are not only corrupted themselves, but convey the poison thereof into the bowels of the State; doing more harm by their example, than their sin. Upon which considerations, no doubt, our Prophet promiseth to begin at the wel-head, & to set in order the first wheel, by the reformation of himself. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.  
The first thing he vows touching himself, is wise behaviour; prudence, not sapience; not wise contemplation, but wise action. It is not wise thoughts, or wise speaking, or wise writing, or wise gesture & countenance, will serve the turn; but wise behaviour: the former are graceful, but the other needful. For, as the Apostle saith of godliness, Having a show of godliness, but denying the power thereof: so certainly there are in point of wisdom and sufficiency that do little or nothing throughly, but magno cona●● nugas, they make much ado about small matters; using all the perspectives of shifting they can devise to make an empty superficies seem a body that hath depth and bulk.  
It hath been an opinion, The French are wiser than they seem, the Spaniards seem wiser than they are: and pity it is they should be sundered; but, if they must needs, better it were to make choice of a wise behaviour without seeming, than of seeming wise without behaviour suitable thereunto. The reason is, because as the conceptions, so also the affections of the soul are more lively and effectually charactered and unfolded in deeds than in words; in as much as words may more easily be dissembled than deeds: and true virtue consists not in knowledge, but in practice; at least as oft as occasion and opportunity are offered, and means afforded. The hearers of the law are not justified, but the doers thereof, saith the Apostle, Rom. 2; opposing doing to simple hearing. And, Blessed are ye if ye know these things, and do them, saith our Saviour; opposing doing to bare knowledge. The end then both of hearing and knowing, is doing: it is the badge of our Profession, the pledge of our Election, the assurance of our effectual Vocation, the fruit of our justification, a special part of our Sanctification, and the highway to our eternal Salvation: Faith, without it, being but a vain speculation; and Hope, but a vain presumption; and Charity, but a vain ostentation. Therefore, saith our Prophet, as some Latin Copies read it, Prudenter agam, I will do wisely. It is a received axiom in Schools; Deus est remunerator adverbiorum, non nominum: God is a rewarder of Adverbs, not of Nouns. Their meaning is, that he regardeth not so much a good action, as the doing of it well. For, a man may do that which is good, either by chance, or by compulsion, or by starts: but, to the well-doing of it, it is requisite, that he do it both wittingly, and willingly, and constantly. As than we have action implied in the Verb: so have we witting, and willing, and constant action implied in the Adverb. And as such action is the life of religion: so is wisdom, of such action; being as it were the knot in the string, the medal in the chain, the gem in the ring of Christian Virtues: sitting as an Empress in the midst of them, consulting, judging, commanding, ordering things present, and providing for the future, by comparing them with the bypast, prescribing circumstances of time, and place, and persons, and manner, and measure, to every several virtue; by failing in the least of which, they lose both their name & their nature: Humility, not seasoned with Wisdom, being but baseness; and Patience, dulness; and Zeal, fury; and Obedience, slavish subjection; and Bounty, wasteful; and Courage, desperate: but, above all, Mercy and justice require Wisdom. And therefore our Prophet having told us, I will sing Mercy and justice; he presently adds, I will do wisely; Mercy and justice being as the two scales of the balance, & Wisdom as the beam between them: Mercy and justice like the two eyes, and Wisdom like the Optic nerve in which they both meet.  
A good Chirurgeon, as they say, should have three properties; a Lady's Hand, a Lion's Heart, and an Eagles Eye: which may well serve as a fit Emblem of these three Virtues, like the three Sister-Graces ever dancing hand in hand. But, of the three, Wisdom is the more excellent, in as much as it moderates both the other two, and all other virtues, in public, in private, in war, in peace, in adversity, in prosperity, in health, in sickness, in diet, in apparel, in speech, in action. Which Solomon knew right well, when he prayed not for riches, or honour, or a long life; but for Wisdom, In whose right hand is length of days, and, in her le●t, riches and honour: the merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof is better than gold. It is more precious than pearls: and all things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her: she is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her; and blessed is he that retaineth her.  
As Wisdom is a singular ornament to all: so is it in a manner essential to Kings, in as much as by it they reign, Pro. 8. There are few things presented to their view in their proper shapes and colours: which requires in them the greater Wisdom to find them out; it being the King's honour to search out a things as it is the glory of God to conceal it, Pro. 23. 1. 2. 25. 3. The Wisemen of the East, who brought our Saviour Presents, are therefore (as I conceive) specially thought to have been Kings, because they were wise: and, Rexilliteratus, said a King, what other is he, quam bos coonatus. It was the speech of Lewis, the eleventh of France, to his son, Charles the Eight, that he should learn no more Latin but this, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit regnare. But surely, had himself learned more than he did, it may well be thought, he would never have taught him that Lesson; learning, especially in moral philosophy and history, joined with judgement & experience, being the best mistress of Wisdom, which ever hath been and will be justified of her own children.  
To let go the Living, for fear of flattery; I will only instance in Augustus and Charlemagne, both well learned, and both very wise and happy Emperors, great rewarders of learning, and advancers of their Teachers. It will be said, that many Princes have attained to rare Wisdom, without learning: yet can it not be denied, but that learning wisely used would have added both grace and strength unto their Wisdom.  
Quale manus addunt ebori de●us, aut ubi●lavo  
Argentum pariusve lapis cum cingitur auro.  
For, as expert men can best execute, so learned men are fittest to judge or censure. And as the Sciences are contemned by the crafty, and admired by the simple, and by some abused to sloth or affectation: so wisemen only use them aright, not only for delight and ornament, but for ability. As then that State is happy which enjoys both a learned and a wise Prince: so is that most unhappy, Cuius Rex est Puer, whose King is neither learned nor wise. Yet is it not all kind of learning or wisdom which is available for the true happiness of a King or Kingdom (as may appear in the miserable ends of Herod, and julian the Apostate, both in their kinds wise and learned) but wise behaviour in a perfect way, that is, Wisdom mixed with Piety, guided by Religion, and sanctified with Grace. Whence our Prophet adds, I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way: I will so make use of the Wisdom of the Serpent, that I forsake not the Innocency of the Dove.  
The cursed Atheist thinks himself a jolly Wiseman, and all others fools that make conscience of any religion: but our Prophet is bold to put the fool upon him; The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God, Psal. 14. 1. The Philosophers of the Gentiles thought themselves the only wisemen of the world: but, while they professed themselves wise, they became fools, and their foolish heart was full of darkness, Rom. 1. 21. The covetous Worldling applauds his own wisdom, and laughs at others for their simplicity: but, before he sleep, he hears his Doom; Thou fool▪ this night shall they take thy soul from thee. The Galathians thought themselves wiser than the other Gentiles, for the observation of the legal Ceremonies: but St. Paul in his Epistle to them, calls them fools for their labour. And likewise the pharisees were held the wisest of all the jewish Nation: but our Saviour tells them to their faces, they were but formal fools. True Wisdom is then to be found, and only to be found in the perfect way.  
There is a Devilish wisdom, rather craft than wisdom, maintained by dissimulation, and lying, and perjury: such as was that of Boniface the eight Bishop of Rome, who entered like a Fox, reigned like a Lion, and died like a Dog; of jezabel and Achttophel in practice, and Machivell in precepts. This wisdom runs a contrary bias to this perfect way: it is directly opposite unto it, and fights against it. Again, there is a Humane or rational wisdom, enlightened at the torch of right reason, yet left amongst the remainders of God's image in man: and this, though it be beside the perfect way, yet may it be reduced unto it; good use (no doubt) may be made of it. And lastly, there is a Divine, holy, and heavenly Wisdom, whose beginning is the fear of God, whose crown is the favour of God, whose guide is this perfect way, the word of GOD: which is therefore called a way, because it leads us to our journeys end; and a perfect way, because the Author of it is the abstract of all perfection; because it sufficiently contains in it all things requisite to bring us to perfection both of body and soul, both of grace and glory; and lastly, because it makes those perfect that walk in it, at least in regard of endeavour, and the several parts of perfection, though not the degrees: as, a child may be said to be a perfect man, in that he hath all the parts of a man, though he want the growth and strength of a man. And if this way were thus perfect in David's time, what is it by the addition of so many parcels of Scripture since? If it then gave wisdom to the simple, Psal. 19 7; if it made David, being brought up but as a Shepherd, wiser than his enemies, than his ancients, than his teachers, Psal. 119; as an Angel of God in discerning right from wrong, 2. Sa. 14. 17; able to guide the people by the skilfulness of his hands, Psal. 78. 72; what kind of wisdom is there, which we may not now gather from thence?  
What depth of natural Philosophy have we in Genesis and job? what flowers of Rhetoric in the Prophets? what force of Logic in Saint Paul's Epistles? what Art of poetry in the Psalms? what excellent moral Precepts, not only for Private life, but for the regiment of Families and Commonweals, in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes? to which may be added in a second rank as very useful, though Apocryphal, the book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus? what reasonable and just laws have we in Leviticus and Deuteronomy? which moved the great Ptolomey to hire the Septuagints to translate them into Greek: what unmatchable antiquity, variety, and wonderful events, and certainty of story, in the books of Moses, josuah, the judges, Samuel, the Kings and Chronicles, together with Ruth and Ester, Ezra and Nehemiah, and since Christ, in the sacred Gospels and Acts of the Apostles? and lastly, what profound mysteries have we in the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, and the Revelation of Saint john? But in this it infinitely exceeds the Wisdom of all humane writings, that it is alone able to make a man wise unto salvation, 2. Tim. 3. 15. Upon these considerations, Charles the fifth of France, surnamed the Wise, not only caused the Bible to be translated into French, but was himself very studious in the holy Scriptures. And Alphonsus, King of Arragon, is said to have read over the whole Bible fourteen several times with lyra's notes upon it: though he were otherwise excellently well learned, yet was the law of God his delight, more desired of him than gold, yea then much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  
I will end this point with the Commandment of God himself to the King, Deuteronomie 17: When he shall sit upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write him a copy of this Law in a book, out of that which is before the Priests, the Levites: and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law, and these Statutes to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the Commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. And look what was there given in charge to the King in general, was afterward commanded josuah (a worthy Leader) in particular, josuah 1. 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written therein: For than thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou 
* Or do wisely.  have good success. It followeth, O when wilt thou come unto me!  
The coming of God unto his children, is, either by the performance of his promises, or by the special assistance of his Spirit, or by the receiving of them unto himself. Such as think this Psalm was penned before David's coming to the Crown, understand these words, of the performance of God's promise in setting it upon his head and settling him in the regal Throne, and then this to be the meaning; O Lord I will tarry thy leisure, and keep myself within the bounds of my duty, till thou hast accomplished that which thou hast promised unto me; though thou delay the matter, and put me off, I will be content to walk in the perfect way, and not once presume to step aside out of it, to compass that which thou hast said thou wilt give me. And according to this promise of his, we may see how he carried himself: for, although there were a great space betwixt his anointing, whereby he was by Gods own mouth proclaimed heir apparent to the Crown, after the death of Saul, and his coming to it; notwithstanding he had the hearts of the Subjects, insomuch as the women in their songs extolled him above the King; though the soul of jonathan the King's eldest son were fast linked to him, and so he might have conceived hope to have made a strong party against Saul, who daily provoked him by most cruel and unjust persecution: yet David kept himself in his uprightness: he hasted not by any indirect attempt (as did his son Absalon afterwards against himself) to seek his own revenge, nor to displace the King and his seed, which he knew in time were to be removed; but patiently waited upon God, doing his will: yea, when God two several times had put Saul into his hands (once in the Cave where David and his men were hidden; another time in Saul's own Tent, where with such courage he had adventured) he was so far off from taking away his life (which easily he might have done) that his heart checked him for cutting off the lap of the King's garment, at the one time; & he sharply rebuked Abner for guarding the King's person so weakly, at the other. Thus did this holy man wisely carry himself in the perfect way of patience and loyalty to his cruel Prince, and persecuting father in law, till God himself (by the way that he appointed) had set him in the King's seat.  
The contrary is reported of Don Carlo, Infant of Spain, if the relation be true; that he through impatience and ambition practised against his Father, and for that cause suffered in the year of the Lord made up in the numeral letters of this old verse, 
156●.  Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos. Once we are sure that our late neighbour King, the sooner to get the quiet possession of that Crown, to which he had unquestionable right (if their Salic law be in force) forsook that religion in which he was brought up; and such as were disposed to play with his name, found in it while he stood out, Bonus Orbi, 
Borbonius.  but afterward, Orbus boni: but God dallied not with him, suffering him to be dangerously stricken in the mouth upon the first abjuring of his religion; and afterwards in or near the heart, in the midst of his Triumphs, Nobility, and imperial City, to the great astonishment of the Christian world.  
Indeed, it was a speech borrowed frow Euripides, and often repeated by Caesar, 
Si violandum est ius,  
Violandum est propter imperium:   
But, rather befitting the mouth of a Heathen, than a Christian: yet are our own Chronicles but too plentiful in Examples in this kind, of such as being heirs apparent to the Crown, rather snatched it before their due time, then received it when it fell.  
Among others, we read that Richard, eldest son than living to King Henry the second, approaching the corpse of his Father as it was carrying to be interred (adorned according to the manner of Kings, with all royal ornaments open faced) the blood gushed out at the nostrils of the dead, a sign usually noted of guiltiness; as if nature yet after death retained some intelligence in the veins, to give notice of wrong, and check the malice of an unnatural offender: at which sight Richard, surprised with horror, is said to have burst ou● into extreme lamentations. Neither was Edward the fourth free from this imputation: who when his father and himself had voluntarily and solemnly sworn, to suffer Henry the sixth quietly to enjoy the Crown during his life; yet did he (as thinking the time long till he had it on his own head) set his brother of Gloucester to dispatch King Henry, teaching him by the same Art to kill his own sons and successors, Edward and Richard. For those Kings that sell the blood of others at a low prize, do but make the market for their enemies to buy theirs at the same rate.  
On the other side, it is recorded in the French History, to the eternal commendation of Robert eldest son to Hugh Capet the first King of their last race, that being by his father's consent and desire crowned King, and proclaimed his Lieutenant General in the kingdom, he notwithstanding still continued a son without waywardness, a companion without jealousy, & a King without ambition.  
And we may speak it without flattery, that his Majesty now living and long to live, hath left to posterity a worthy pattern in this kind, by receiving this crown of England even from the hand of God: having patiently waited the due time of putting it on, howsoever he were provoked to hasten it, refusing the assistance of her enemies, that wore it as long with as great glory as ever Princess did; not entering by a breach or by blood, but by the ordinary gate which his own right, and divine providence, set open. Neither would he, for the settling of his right, admit the toleration of any other religion, then that which he here found, and himself professed; protesting openly, that he would choose rather, if he were forced to it, to spend the last drop of his blood, than to enter upon such conditions. But, God would not suffer one drop of that sacred blood to be spilt, which was so ready to be poured out for his sake.  
Now those, who think this Psalm was penned by David after his coming to the Crown, conceive that at his entrance thereunto he▪ thus prayed for the special assistance of God's Spirit, aswell in the private carriage of his own Affairs and Person, as in governing the people committed to his charge; well knowing, that without it he could not observe this Vow to which he had bound himself, nor administer Mercy and justice, nor behave himself wisely in a perfect way, nor perform any duty belonging to the office of a King, or a good man, as he ought. He therefore desires of God, that as he had set him in the King's Throne, so he would endue him with all manner of graces and royal virtues fit for so high a place; and not only so, but to assist and direct him in the exercise of those graces and virtues.  
The Heart of the King is in the hand of God, he turneth it as the rivers of waters, Pro. 21. 1: he turneth it to his good, if he flee to him for assistance; but, to his confusion, if he stand upon his own strength. It behoves all men to implore the aid of G O D, but specially Kings and Princes; as in all their actions, so principally in negotiations and treaties of greatest Consequence. That of King Solomon then chiefly concerns them; Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own wisdom; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy ways Pro. 3. 5. 6. Princes have fewer than private men, that dare freely tell them the truth (which is indeed one of the great mischiefs of great places) whereas, on the other side, their temptations are many and strong, and their actions of weight & importance, drawing after them either much good or much evil. It behooveth them then, above all, not to presume too much upon themselves, upon their own policy and forecast; but rather upon the providence and assistance of him whose substitutes they are. Th●ir Vice-Roys dare do nothing of moment, without consulting with them: so neither ought they enterprise any thing of importance, without consulting with the Oracle of God, by religious invocation of him, for the illuminating of their understandings, & guiding of their wills; following therein the example of the Wise man, who treating of the excellency of true wisdom, & acknowledging it to be the special gift of God, craved it at his hands, & withal notably set forth the weakness of man's wit & judgement, with the reason thereof, in these words: Give me that wisdom, which sitteth by thy throne, and put me not out from among thy children: for, I thy servant and son of thine handmaid am a feeble person and of a short time, and yet less in the understanding of judgement and the laws: and though a man be never so perfect among the children of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him he shall be nothing regarded: for the thought of mortal men are fearful▪ and our forecasts uncertain, because the corruptible body is heavy unto the soul, and the earthly mansion keepeth down the mind that is full of ●ares. Wisdom 9  
Seeing then the infirmity of man's foresight and determinations, together with the uncertainty of humane affairs and events; it were good for all religious Princes to take that as their Posy which our late renowned Princess made the inscription of her Coin, Posui Deu● adiutorem meum. Besides: it hath been noted, that those who ascribe too much to their own wisdom and policy, end unfortunately. As, Caesar Borgia (whom Machiavelli mak●s the mirror and pattern of his Prince) his Motto was, A●t Caesar, a●t nullus: but, in the end he proved both; Et Caesar, & nullus. And Timotheus the Athenian after he had, in the account given to the State, of his government, often interlaced this speech [and in this fortune had no part] was observed never to have prospered in any thing he undertook afterwards. Now, look what Fortune was to them, the same is God's Providence unto us: whereas on the other side, the most prosperous in their enterprises, have ever most willingly ascribed their victories, their deliverances, their successful Counsels, and happy issues, rather to the goodness of divine Providence, than their own valour or wit.  
And surely, he that shall consider how a day, an hour, a moment is enough to overturn the deepest plots of the gravest Senates, that seemed (as one speaks) to have been founded and rooted in Adamant, cannot but withal acknowledge it as exceeding folly and ingratitude in any man, so to dote upon and admire the sufficiency of his own gifts, as to forget the Giver; so much to rely upon the arm of flesh, that he neglect the direction of God's holy Spirit: which is, as if a man should set to Sea without a Pilot, or undertake a journey through a dangerous Forest in a dark night, without a guide. I will then conclude this point with that prayer of the People for their Prince, and the Prince for himself; Give thy judgements to the King O Lord: and thy righteousness to the King's son, Psalm 72. 1.  
A third sort understand these words of our Prophet, When wilt thou come unto me] of God's coming to David to receive him to himself: thereby implying that he would so behave himself, as he would always have an eye to the main chance; not only to the end of his actions, but of his life: which indeed is an excellent means both to walk wis●ly, as he promises before; and uprightly, as he voweth immediately after: When Princes look not so much upon their plumes and trains, their present power and magnificence; as upon their future condition, when their bodies shall become the like prey to worms and rottenness, and their souls shall undergo the like strict examination, as the bodies and souls of their meanest Subjects: When this great game at Chess is here ended, they must with others be laid up together in the common bag of Nature; and then shall th●re be no difference between their dust, and that of the poorest Beggar.  
The remembrance hereof is like a bitter pill, to purge out the malignity of many wanton and vain ●umors; or like a strainer, all our thoughts & speeches and actions, which pass through it, are thereby cleansed and purified. As the bird guideth her body with her train, and the ship is steered with the rudder: so the course of man's life is best directed with a continual recourse unto his end. It is hard for a man to think of a short life, and to think evil; or to think of a long life, and to think well. Therefore when Solomon had spoken of all the vanities of men, at last he opposed this Memorandum, as a counterpoise against them all, Remember for all these things thou shalt come to judgement, Eccles. 11. As if he should say, men would never speak as they speak, nor do as they do, if they did but think that these speeches and deeds should shortly come to judgement.  
But an hard thing it is for them, who fare deliciously every day, who glister like Angels, whom all the world admires, and sues and bows to, which are called Sacred, Gracious, and mighty Lords, to remember the approach of Death. They have no leisure to think of it, but chop into the earth before they be aware; like a man that walketh over a field covered with snow, and sees not his way, but while he thinks to run on, suddenly falls into a pit: so they which have all things at their will, and swim in pleasure, which as a snow covereth their way, & dazzleth their sight, while they think to live on and rejoice still, suddenly rush upon death, and make shipwreck in the calm Sea. As it is good therefore for them to hear they are gods: so it is meet they remember they are mortal gods, They shall die like men, Psal. 82. For when they forget they shall die like men, they also forget to live and reign like gods.  
Had they with joseph of Arimathea, their tombs hewed out in their gardens, where they use of solace themselves, it would make them so to number their days, that they would apply their hearts unto Wisdom. O that men were wise (saith Moses) then would they consider their latter end, Deutr. 32. 29. So that Wisdom brings a man to consider his end, and the consideration of his end makes him more wise; As, on the other side, it is noted as a point of folly in God's people, that they minded not, nor remembered their end, Lament. 1. 9 Now, as the remembrance of death made the Prophet walk more wisely: so did the remembrance of judgement after death, make him walk more uprightly; as well knowing he was to render an account to a higher judge, who could neither be terrified with stout looks, nor led with respect of persons, nor persuaded with eloquence, nor blinded with gifts; But, as he was in greater place than others, so should his reward be greater, and his Crown more glorious, if he did well: but his punishment greater, and his torment more grievous, if he did ill. Therefore, he presently adds, after, this ejaculation cast in between, I will walk within mine house with a perfect heart.   

I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Walking is a word often used in holy Scripture, and specially by our Prophet in this book of the Psalms; yet more often figuratively than properly. It shall not be amiss then, out of the property and nature of it, to consider the duties included and implied in it. The natural acts of it then are three; motion, progress, and moderation. As it includes motion, so is it opposed to lying, or standing, or sitting: as it includes progress in motion, so is it opposed to jumping, or capering up & down in the same place: as it includes moderation in a progressive motion, so is it opposed to violent running.  
Motion is the common effect of all natural bodies: they all either move in their place, or to their place. The heavens, & air, and birds move above us; the sea, ●ivers, fishes, and worms, move under us; the beasts beside us; and our own heart's day & night within us; And shall we alone stands still in the midst of so many movers round about us? Every one of these Creatures seem to cry unto us, Qui fecit me propter te, fecit te propter se, He that made me to move for thee, made thee to move for himself.  
Why then stand ye here all the day idle, saith our Saviour to those loiterers in the Gospel: and I wish I might not justly say the like to many here present; Idleness being commonly the best mark of a Gentleman and a Courtier: whereas employment and action was enjoined man, even in the state of innocency, Gen. 2. 15. but, then for recreation; afterward Gen. 3. 19 for necessity. To which the Apostle seems to allude, He that will not work and exercise himself in some lawful kind of employment, is to be held Telluris inutile pondus, not so much as worthy to eat, 2. Thes. 3. 10. Diogenes, that he might not seem idle in the midst of business, would needs be doing, though it were but by rolling of his Tub: and these men to shun the imputation of slothful persons become busy bodies, and so walk indeed, but inordinately, v. 11. Like those walkers in the third to the Philippians, who●e end is damnation, or like that Arch-ranger, who walks about seeking whom he may devour, they wholly spend their time either mal● agendo, or aliud agendo, or nihil agendo, in doing naught, or impertinences, or nothing, which will quickly bring them to the other two; The mind of man being of such an active disposition, that if it be not set a-work in goodness, it will quickly set itself a-work in mischief: if it be not manured with good seeds, it will soon be fertile in weeds.  
Pity it is, that three such good mothers, as Truth, Familiarity, and Peace, should by the viciousness of our nature bring forth three such bad daughters, as Ha●red, Contempt, and Idleness; the daughter indeed of Peace, but the mother of Discord and War: of the war of the sensual appetite against reason, as appeared in the filthy Sodomites, Ezekiel 16. 49. Of the Subject against the Sovereign, as hath often appeared in the rebellious Irish. It were good then for a Prince to keep his Subjects in motion, either by employment of trades, or discoveries, or some such action: which, as it tends to the ornament and wealth of his Kingdom, so doth it to the safety of his person; and the rather, if himself be of a stirring humour: whereas, on the other side, his standing still is like the standing of the Sun in the firmament; which, as it cannot but breed admiration, so neither can it well be without dangerous effects: it being known, that the two first Races of the French Kings were extinct by putting off their Affairs of the State upon the Majors of the Palace, that so they might betake themselves to a retired kind of life. Industry hath ever raised and enlarged Empires, but idleness ruined them. As than Princely State doth not become the Monks Cool: so neither doth Monkish retiredness, the Prince's Crown. As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk, 1. Cor. 7. 17.  
Secondly, as walking implies motion, so doth it progress in motion; when by his motion a man gets ground & goes forward. It is truly said even in Civil affairs, that the mind of man is more cheered and refreshed by profiting in small things, then by standing at a stay in great: but▪ in the course of piety and religion, Not to get ground, is to lose ground. Wherefore, 
H●b. 6. 1  leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. And forgetting the things behind, and reaching-forth to those which are before, 
Phil. 3. 13.  let us press toward the mark. Turpis & ridicula res est elementarius senex, 'tis a shameful thing to see an old man in his Able; but, dangerous for a Christian not to go forwrad in the gaining of knowledge and practice of sanctification. His first beginning is as the dawning of the day, his proceeding as a fair sunshine morning, his ending as the Sun at high noon in the midst of a Summer's day; according to that of Solomon, 
Pro. 4. 18.  The path of the Justice is as the shining light, that shineth more and more until it be perfect day.  
Now the steps by which we mount this Meridian, are eight; answerable to the eight steps going up to the Temple. 
Ezek. 40. 31  Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, 2. Pet. 2. 5. The lowest step in this Christian Progress is Faith: and the highest, Charity; faith being the groundwork, and charity the● roof of our spiritual building. In the world, the ambitious man never leaves his aspiring to honour, nor the covetous man his scraping up of riches, nor the voluptuous man his hunting after pleasure, nor the curious man his prying into the secrets of God and the bowels of nature▪ they all either do or desire to go forward, though it be to the Confines of hell; And shall we then be less active in our progress to heaven? Ad quod multi potuerunt pervenire, nisi se putassent pervenisse, unto which many undoubtedly might have arrived, had they not sat down in the midway, and thought their condition for Travellers good enough: whereas the exhortation, 2. Pet. 3. 18, Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ, still hath and will have its place and use so long as we sojourn here below in this valley of tears, until our faith be turned into vision, and our hope into fruition; until we come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Eph. 4. 13; who being a child increased as in age and stature, 
Luke 2. 52  so in wisdom and favour with God and men: which as all are to labour for, so specially they that sit in his throne & bear his name, in that they are his anointed.  
Thirdly, as walking implies motion and progress, so doth it moderation, as it is opposed to violent running; which is more subject both to falling and tiring, then moderate walking. Moderation is the salt that maketh all our actions relish to ourselves, beneficial to others, and acceptable to God: without which, business is rather burdensome then profitable, and exercise rather a toil than recreation. As a man may eat too much honey, so pleasure itself grows loathsome and distasteful by immoderate use. Nempe voluptatem commendat r●ri●r usus. Besides: moderation is the mother of duration; it is like the steady burning of a taper, or the fire upon the Altar which never went our: whereas headstrong violence like a squib or flash of lightning dazzles the eyes for a moment, but is instantly extinct.  
The great Master of morality held it a great indecency in a Magistrate, to be seen running in the market place: because he, who is to moderate others, should himself observe a stayed moderation and gravity, even in his pace and gesture, and countenance; much more in his actions. The Lion, they say, is seldom or never seen to run; yet is he for courage and wisdom the King of beasts: and the higher the Celestial Spheres are in situation, the slower they are in their proper motion. It is commonly the fault of youth, by reason of their strong passion and little experience, to make more haste than good speed: and therefore it was good counsel of a Father to his Son, Parce puer stimulis, & fortius u●ere loris: to be sparing of the spur, and to make use of the bridle. Generally it is better to hal● in the right way, than to ride a-gallop out of it. And howbeit in the way of godliness a man cannot make too much haste, nor come too soon to heaven; yet it were fit to remember that of our Prophet, I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt have enlarged my heart, Psal. 119. 32; there being not a few, who will undertake to run and flee too, before they are well able to go or stand.  
Lastly, the ordinary effects of bodily walking, are, the quickening of the appetite, the refreshing of the spirits, the warming of the blood, and the exercising of the body: In like manner, by this spiritual walking in the paths of God's commandments, is the appetite of our soul quickened to spiritual things, the spirit comforted and refreshed, our zeal warmed, and our benumbed affections made more nimble and pliant.  
Now follows the Rule of his walking; which is, the integrity of his heart. So Tremelius renders it, Ambulabo in integritate animi mei: our last Translation reads it, with a perfect heart. That same which he here promiseth for himself, he elsewhere enjoins his Son; And thou, Solomon my Son▪ know thou the God of thy Fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart, and a willing mind, 1. Chr. 28. 9 First then he voweth, that the Rule of his actions should be the Dictate of his own heart; not the fancy of other men's brains, nor the example of other men's lives, nor the report of other men's tongues: which is as uncertain and variable as are the passions of their minds; some, speaking out of fear; some, of ●lattery; some, of malice; and some, of faction. The best way than for a man to examine his actions, is, To examine his heart; there being no man living that knows or possibly can know thee so well as thou dost thine own self. For, what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man that is within him? 1. Cor. 2. 11. Though all the world acquit thee, if thine own heart condemn thee in that thou dost, thou art guilty before God: & though the whole world condemn thee, if thy own heart acquit thee, thou art either guiltless, or thereby less guilty. For, as whats●ever is not of faith, is sin, Rom. 14. 23 (that is, whatsoever is done against conscience, though good in itself, yet to me is made sin): so, on the other side, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God, 1. Ioh● 3. 21. In a doubtful cause, then, howbeit perchance the applause of all men, the reasons of Statists, together with the opinion of great Clerks, should give thee allowance; yet, if thou canst not resolve thyself of the lawfulness thereof, attempt it not. For, as it is good for a man to begin with his own heart, for consultation: so is it also, to conclude with it, for resolution; yet so, as other good means ordained to inform the conscience (as, advice with discreet friends, and conference with the Learned, if the matter be of moment, and the cause difficult) be not neglected. Let thine heart then be the Line of thy walking; and the perfection of thine heart, the Level of that Line. I will walk with a perfect heart.  
Perfection implies two things, Integrity and Sincerity: Integrity, that it be whole and sound; Sincerity, that it be single and upright. Sincerity is opposed to that double heart mentioned by our Prophet, Psal. 12. 2, With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak: (the Original is, with a heart and a heart) Integrity, to that divided heart, whereof the Prophet Hosea, Their heart is divided, cap. 10. 2; when a part is bestowed on God, and a part on our own profit or pleasure. First then he promiseth to walk with a perfect heart, that is, in the singleness and simplicity, the uprightness and sincerity of his heart, as God commanded Abraham, Gen. 17. 1▪ Walk before me, and be thou perfect; or, as the Margin reads it, upright and sincere; a word borrowed from honey, as the Grammarians will have it: which, the purer it is, sine cerâ, without wax, the more pleasant and wholesome it is; as they likewise draw simplicity, which signifies the same, from a garment, sine plicis, without pleats or folds. Now, this sincerity or simplicity is therefore called perfection, because it is the greatest perfection we can possibly arrive unto in this world. For, absolute perfection, in fulfilling every point of the Law in that exact manner and degree as is required, neither doth our Prophet undertake, neither could he by any means perform.  
He well knew, all that God expected, and himself could safely promise, was but sincerity: without which, many good services are not accepted; and with which, many great imperfections and infirmities are covered, as with a mantle. How many infirmities escaped from our Prophet himself! his numbering the people, his counterfeiting madness, his collusion with Achish, his rash anger, and furious swearing, and vowing the death of Nabal, and his unjust dealing with good poor Mephibosheth: these things were sins; yet sincerity was a veil unto them, because it was not so shaken in these, as in his murder and adultery. God that took some special notice of this last, would take none at all of the other: The heart of David (saith the Scripture) was upright in all things, save in the matter of Vriah, 1. King. 15. 5. In like manner, some of asa's infirmities having been mentioned by the holy Ghost, as that the high places were not taken away; yet the Conclusion is, Nevertheless his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. Lo, how all his infirmities are covered with the mantle of sincerity, 1. King. 15. 14. chose, in jehu, we may observe, how the holy Ghost, after a large description of many excellent things done by him, doth at last draw as it were a cross-line, and dash out all spoken before, with this Conclusion, But I●hu regarded not to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart. Lo, how all his other graces are buried in the grave of an unsound heart, 2. King. 10. 31.  
Great virtues, not sweetened with sincerity, are no ornament unto us: & great infirmities not soured with hypocrisy are no great deformities: those God acknowledges not, these he imputes not. The reason is, because where sincerity is, there in the meanest works that are, together with them the heart is given to God▪ & the more a man gives of his heart to God, the more acceptable is his work. The widow's mite could weigh but little, but her heart weighed heavy: and so her heart being put to her mite, gave it weight above the greater (but far more heartless) largess of the Pharisee. Sincerity is to our works, as spirit is to our bodies; which maketh it far better than where there is more ●lesh, but less spirit. O rare and excellent virtue of sincerity! which can make light drams and barley corns as massy and ponderous, as the huge talents: whereas contrarily, the want of sincerity maketh talents as light as feathers. Hypocrisy (such is the filth of it) imbaseth the purest metals, and turneth very gold, yea precious stones, into justly iron: whereas sincerity by a divine kind of Alchemy turneth iron into gold.  
As in the natural body, to use Saint Augustine's comparison, the case of the sound finger is safer than of the blindish eye: the finger indeed is but a little small thing, and cannot do such service as the eye, it is not of that admirable nimbleness and quickness, nor can it guide and direct the whole body as the eye doth; and yet is it better to be a finger & sound, than to be an eye and dim or dark, ready to fall out of the socket. And Chrysostom says well, that she is a worse woman that in hypocrisy blurs her face with tears, that she might be judged an humble Penitentiary, than she that beautifies it with painted colours, that she might be reputed a fair and lovely creature.  
Finally, sincerity as it is of all virtues the girdle, Ephe. 6. 14. & of all other the most acceptable to God: so is it to us the most profitable in all dangers, trials & temptations; begetting in us that Lion-like boldness spoken of in Pro. 28. 1. It is not put out of countenance with false accusations of slanderous tongues: it throweth them off as Paul did the Viper, unhurt; yea, in a holy scorn it laugheth at them. No, no: the breastplate of righteousness, the brazen wall of a good conscience feareth no such arrows. It saith with Paul, 1. Cor. 4. 3. I pass not for man's judgement: And with job, 31. 35. Though mine adversary should write a book against me, I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown unto me. That which made him thus confident, was the sincerity of his heart. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let i● go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live, job 27. 5. And as it bred confidence in job, in his trials, so did it minister comfort to Hezekiah, being now stricken with the thunderbolt of the sentence of death. O Lord, thou knowest (saith he) I have walked with an upright heart, Esa. 38. 3. Though those good works he had done, were in regard of his calling, of the highest note, the restoring of the true worship of God, the purging of the defiled Temple and Priesthood: yet he doth not comfort himself with these so worthy works; O Lord, thou knowest I have cleansed thy Sanctuary, erected thy worship, repaired the decayed walls of jerusalem, renewed the glory & beauty of thy Zion. No: but, without instancing in any particulars he had done, he mentions only the sincerity of his affection in doing them; I have walked with a perfect or upright heart: which is the same our Prophet here promiseth, I will walk with a perfect heart.  
Perfect, as in regard of sincerity, opposed to a doubl● heart; so likewise in regard of integrity, opposed to a cloven or divided heart. The former implies an unfeigned; the later an universal obedience: for the shunning as of hypocrisy in respect of others, so of partiality towards himself. Blessed are they that seek him with their wh●le heart, Psal. 119. 2. And therefore are they blessed, because it is commanded, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, Deut. 6. 5. Those false harlots, the World, & the Devil, and the Flesh are content to share with God in thy heart: but God, like the true mother, will have all or none. The gods of the Heathen were goods fellows, they could well enough endure inter-com-communing and partnership: but the true God is the jealous God, who cannot away with halves or parts. As himself and the light (which of all visible things comes nearest his nature) are indivisible: so is he most delighted with the Holocaust of an entire and undivided heart. And as in nature, Solutio continui, the division of any member, is the maim and grief of the body, but the division of the heart is the present death of it: so the division of the affections of the heart between the love of God and the love of ourselves, is undoubtedly the death of the soul.  
With what face can we come before God, when with Ananias and Saphira we keep back pa●t from him? when with Zachary and Elizabeth we walk not in all the commandments of the Lord? Doubtless, the old and sure way, not to be ashamed when we present ourselves before him, 
Psa. 119. ●  is, to have respect to all his commandments. Though we cannot keep all nor any one indeed as we ought, yet we may and must have regard unto all, and that equally without respect or difference of any. For, he that fails in one point, is guilty of all, james 2. 10. His meaning is (says the most learned Interpreter) Deum nolle cum exceptione coli, that God will not be served with exceptions and reservations. As his law is one entire rule, though consisting of many pieces: so ought our actions and affections entirely to be squared thereunto. If we will go out of Egypt, we must not leave so much as an hoof behind us. If we leave but one gate of our soul o●●n, our spiritual enemies (who lie in ambush for all advantages) may as well, by that, rush in upon us to our perdition, as if no gate were shut, no breach made up. If the Bird be taken but by the claw, the Fowler is as sure of him, as if he had his whole body in his hand. And the Ship is oftener sunk by some little insensible leak, than by the violent dashingin of the waves unto it. Look, then, as to the sincerity, so to the integrity of thy heart in God's service.  
He forbids us not to love other things besides himself; but we may love nothing but for his sake: and so doing, we can love nothing in that degree we love him. Above all, let us beware of the sins of our particular vocation, and of our natural constitution, and of the times and places in which we live: for, These, most men make their Idols, and are ready to say with Naaman, The Lord be merciful to me in this. But, this is not to walk with a perfect heart: which strives against all known sin, because it is sin; and endeavours the keeping of all the commandments, because they are commanded: and if we so do, for sins of pure ignorance and mere infirmity, God doth graciously vouchsafe us a daily pardon of Course. Who can understand his errors? Keep thy servant from presumptuous sins; then shall I be upright, Psal. 19 12.  
To conclude: however the damnable Politicians of our Age would persuade their Prince, that the practice of outward Piety and civil Honesty is sufficient for him; yet our Prophet and Prince promiseth to walk with a perfect heart, and performed what he promised, so as he dareth for that to appeal to God's examination and censure: judge me, O Lord: for, I have walked in mine integrity, Psal. 26. 1. And again: Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting, Psal. 139. ●3. And, lest we should think This, presumption in him, the holy Ghost doth him this honour, that those Kings who truly feared God, and reigned well, are said to have walked in the ways of David their Father, 2. Kings 22. 2; but, those that reigned ill, because they feared not God, not to have walked in his ways, 1. Kings 15. 3. So that he is not only commended for his sound and single heart, but is therein proposed as a rule to succeeding Ages, for the trial either of the straightness or crookedness of his Successors.  
Now, in the last place follows the Place of his Walk: which is, within his house; or, as Arias Montanus hath it, in interiori domus meae, in the inmost part of my house. He would make a trial in the very managing of his Family and houshould-affaires, of his ability and sufficiency for the government of the Kingdom; as the Queen of the South made a guess of Salomon's Wisdom by the government of his house, 1. Kin. 10. Every house-houlder is parvus Rex, a little King in his own Family: and the greatest Monarch, upon the matter, is but magnus Pater-familias, a great house-houlder, or a common Father of the public Family of the State. As then a man may see the coasting of the whole world represented in a little map as well as a gr●at; the degrees of the Sun's motion, as well in a little Dial, as a great; the figure and colour of a visage, as well in a little picture or looking-glass, as a great; and the conveyance of a building, as well in a little frame or model, as a great: so may a man's desert and sufficiency, for the governing of a Kingdom, be seen and made known in the wel-ordering and disposing of his private house.  
And, as it is a trial, so is it also a preparation to greater matters; it being not safe committing a vessel of burden to his charge, who never guided a bark or pinnace; nor to make him General of an Army, who never had experience of an undercaptains place: But, he that first shows himself faithful in a little, is both thereby counted the worthier, & is indeed the fitter to be made Ruler over much, Luke 19 17. whereas, on the other side, If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? saith the Apostle, 1. Tim. 3. 5. He speaks indeed of a Bishop; but so, as his words are appliable to the civil Magistrate, who is charged with the government both of Church and temporal State. Quid authoritatis poterit habere in populo, quem propria domus reddit contemptibilem? How shall the people reverence him, whom his own family respects not, and his own behaviour therein makes him respectless?  
Again: In that he promiseth to walk uprightly within his house, i●●ra privatos parietes, as junius doth paraphrase it, within his private walls; his meaning is, that he would be no changeling: that amongst his houshould-people (where few beheld him) he would be the same that he was abroad, where many eyes saw him: he would be as godly in his Chamber, as in the Temple; in his Closet, or Grove, or Gallery, as in the great Congregation: it being indeed the truest sign of an ingenuous spirit, to practise the same alone which he professeth in company; and of a false heart, to be devout abroad, and profane at home; an Angel in the Church, and a Devil in the house: such as they, who in open place, where they may have praise of men, will do some good; but after they are more private, they discover themselves in their kind, and run freely to their own race, as the horse rusheth into the battle, ler. 8. 6.  
I know, there is a time even for private men, much more for Princes▪ whose bu● then is greater, to unbind the boaw of their serious thoughts; and to give the mind some relaxation and refreshment from public employments, that so they may be the fitter to return to them again: but, no time or place is there in which they may lose the reins to their unbridled appetite, or securely sin because they are private. No, He that is present with them sitting in their Thrones, is likewise present with them lying in their Beds: as he is with them in their Chapels, so is he in their most secret Cabinets and withdrawing rooms. Like a well-drawn picture that eyeth each in the room, he eyeth in that manner each one in the world; and all the ways of each one, as if his eye were upon him alone. He seeth all things, himself unseen of any; being so without all things, as that he is not excluded from any; and so within all things, as that he is not included in any. It is he, of whom our Prophet speaks in another Psalm▪ Thou knowest my down-sitting and my ●p-●ising, thou understandest my thought a-far-off, th●u compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways: unto whom the day and the darkness, the light and the night are both alike, 139. In whose sight the very intentions of the heart are naked and open, Heb. 4. 13. The Greek word signifieth so opened, as the entralls of a man that is anatomised, or of a beast that is cut up and quartered. Quare, sit peccar● vis, qua●re ubi te non videat, & fac quod vis, saith Saint Augustine; If then thou wilt sin securely, seek ou● a place where he sees thee not, and there do what thou list: but, if his eye p●y into ●very corner, than hast thou reason rather to stand in awe of the presence of the immortal God, than of a mortal man. So, do whatsoever thou dost, saith the heathen Philosopher, 〈…〉, as if severe Cato stood by & looked on: but, if in stead of Ca●o, he had put Deus (as if God stood by and looked on) his advice might well have passed for ●ight Christian Doctrine: which was the Counsel of Another, save tha● he named gods for God; 
Quaecunque capesses,  
Testes factorum stare arbitrabere divos.   
What availeth it to have no creature privy to our evil acts, when we have him privy to them, who must one day judge them?  
The forgetfulness hereof makes many men, and especially great ones, dig deep, as if they would hide their counsel from ●he Lord; and contrive in secret those things, which afterward being brought to light, cast shame in their faces, a burden upon their consciences, a blot upon their name, and (without repentance) everlasting confusion both upon body and soul. It were good, then, to write upon their walls, and to engrave upon their windows, that short Mo●to (which as short as it is, yet our memories are shorter); Cave, Deus videt, Take heed, God sees it. But than should we chiefly call it to mind, and make use of it, when, being enclosed within our walls, sequestered from company, occasion and opportunity invite us to sin.   

Verse 3. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me.  
THe Original hath it, if we will render it word for word, I will set no word of Beliall before mine eyes. But▪ Word is there figuratively put for Thing; as likewise, Psal. 41. 8: and so is it rendered both by Montanus in the Margin, and in the Text by ●unius; howbeit, in his comment upon this Psalm, he precisely follow the Original, applying it against sycophants and flatterers, the mice and moths of Court. But, of these I shall find or take occasion to speak hereafter, and for the Present make choice rather to follow the beaten tract of all the Translations, and other comments which I have seen; specially considering, that (to speak properly) a Word cannot be the object of the eye, but a Thing. Well then: one special point of that Wisdom which our Prophet had promised in the verse going before, appears in not setting these things of Belial, or wicked things, before his eyes.  
As we turn away our eyes from that, or remove that from our eyes which we like not: so, what we most delight in, we commonly set before our eyes, or at least we fix and set our eyes upon that. True it is, that the eyes of the Lord are said to be in every place, beholding the evil and the good, Pro. 15. 3: yet are they in a special manner set upon those places and persons that he hath a tender care of and respect unto, and loves in a special manner. Such a place was the Land of Canaan▪ A Land which the Lord thy God ●areth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the year, to the end thereof, he never took off his eye from it, Deut. 11. 12. Such a person was David: I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shall go: I will guide thee with mine eye; or as the Original, Mine eyes shall be upon thee, Psalm 32. 8. Such are all those of whom Saint Peter speaks, The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, 1. Pet. 3. 12: and they are so over them that he withdraws not his eyes from them, job 36. 7. Now then, as they are always set before God's eyes, whom he loves: so is God always set before their eyes who love him. I have set the Lord always before me, Psalm 16. 8. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, Psal. 123. 1. And as long as he thus set his eyes upon God, and God before his eyes, he could not well set any wicked thing before them. He could not at once intend two such distant objects; he might glance, or squint upon both: but directly fix his eyes upon both he could not. This made him so confident, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.  
A bird may light upon a man's house; but he may choose whether she shall nestle or breed there, or no: And the Devil or his instruments, may represent a wicked object to a man's sight; but he may choose whether he will entertain or embrace it, or no. So that upon the matter, for a man to set wicked things before his eyes, is nothing else, but to sin of set purpose, to set himself to sin, or to sell himself to sin, as Ahab did, 1. King. 21. The best among us, God help us, are subject to sin. For if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: yet by the grace of God we may be kept from presumptuous sins, that they have no dominion over us, Psal. 19 13. And though we do the evil which we would not do, yet we endeavour to do the good which we do not; and we delight in the law of God after the inner man, though we feel in our members another law warring and rebelling against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin, Rom. 7. In such, sin ever goes with some unwillingness, with some wrestling and striving, with some remorse of heart and check of conscience: whereas the unrepentant sinner sets wicked things before his eyes, he seeks out provocations, and hunts after occasions of sinning, he goes on with an high hand and a stiff neck, and is carried with a swinge, as a ship under full sail: he drinkes-in iniquity as the beast licks up the water, or the fish catches at the bait: he cannot sleep nor rest quietly in his bed, before he have done some mischief: his only study is, to fulfil the desires of the flesh: and, having his conscience seared with an hot iron, and being past feeling, he gives himself over to work all manner of uncleanness, and that with greediness: he returns to his former sins, as the horse rusheth into the battle, jer. 8. 6. He makes haste, he runs to all excess of riot, I. Pet. 4. 4. And being come to this pass, he gets him a brow of brass, a strumpet's forehead that canon blush, jer. 3. 3. He declares his sin like Sodom, and hides it not, Esa. 3. 9 And then, Peccator cum in profundum venerit, contemnit, when he is thus plunged in the gulf of sin, he grows desperate, he neither fears God, nor cares for man. Take heed then of setting wicked things before thine eyes, that is, of sinning ex destinata malitiâ, of set purpose, say always, and practice with our Prophet: Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, Psal. 25. 15. And that shall keep thee safe, or cure thee being wounded; as the looking upon the brazen Serpent did the Israelites, stung with the fiery Serpents, Num. 21. 9  
N● wicked thing] The original is a thing of Belial: which word, because we do not often meet with, I thought it not amiss at this time to open the sense and nature of it, so far as it makes for our present purpose. It is not unlikely in my judgement, that it alludes to Baal, the common Idol of the Nations, bordering upon the jews, whom the Patriarches, and Prophets, and Penmen of holy Scripture, changing some letters by way of scorn, called it Belial. As the Prophet Hos●a, chap. 4. 15. calls Bethel, which signifies the house of God, Bethaven, which signifies the house of an Idol; because there jeroboam had set up one of his golden Calves, 1. King. 12. 29. And to express a further hatred to this Idol, and in it to all Idolarrous worship, they applied this name of Belial to the Devil: and thus is it taken, 2. Cor. 6. 15. What harmony or concord hath Christ with Belial? They can never fall-in, or make music together in one Quire.  
The word is, by divers, diversely derived. Some fetch it from a root which signifies, not to profit; by reason of the great hurt and loss he brings & intends to mankind, 1. Pet. 5. 8. Others from a root, that signifies, not to rise or mount upward; because he seeks the fall of mankind, and to keep those down that are fallen into his snares, 2. Tim. 2. 26. But Saint Hierome, who studied the holy Language, in the holy Land itself, for many years together, and had a skilful jew to his Master, fetches it from a root that signifies, without a yoke, or lawless: and therefore the Septuagint commonly translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as a man would say, altother irregular. And this I take to be the most probable; in as much, as where we read of a son or a child, or a man of Belial, through the Scriptures, for the most part, it is in regard of some notorious disobedience, in casting off the yoke of subjection. Thus the sons of Eli are called the sons of Belial, 1 Sam. 2. 12: and the reason is given, because they harkened not to the voice of their Father. In the tenth of the same book, verse 27. a band of men, whose hearts God had touched, went with Saul: but the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? and they despised him, and brought him no presents. In the 2. of Sam. 20. 1. There was a man of Belial, Sheba the son of Bichri, that blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Ishi, Every man to his tents, O Israel. In the 2. of Chron. 13. 7. those who stuck to jeroboam, against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, are termed vain men, the children of Belial. And Saint Paul as I think, alluding hereto, 2. Thes. 2. 8. calls Antichrist, Satan's eldest son, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because at his pleasure he shakes off the yoke of obedionce to the laws, both of God and man; and such, as go about to advance his kingdom by inciting men to serve other Gods, are called the children of Belial, Deut. 13. 13.  
Now as there are sons of Belial, so are there things of Belial, of which we read, Deut. 15. 9 And here in this place, I will set no wicked thing, or thing of Belial, before mine eyes: whereby may be understood any devilish thing, tending to withdraw us from sobriety and godliness, whether it be so in its own nature, or by our corrupt nature it be made so to us: as, lascivious spectacles, wanton pictures, either dead or living, or images for religious use, which some good Divines are of opinion our Prophet here meant. Nothing more different from Beliall than God, than Christ, than a glorified Saint; and yet than the representation of God, or of Christ, or of a Saint for religious use, nothing more a thing of Belial, be it never so curiously wrought, never so artificially graven or carved, never so lively coloured, or richly attired: nay, be it of massy silver & gold, garnished with jewels and precious stones; yet beening put to religious use, it is still a thing of Belial. And the more divine the person is whom it represents, and the more artificial the representation, the more dishonour it doth him who is adored in it; and the more it ensnares him who doth adore by it: and consequently, it still proves the more a thing of Beliall.  
Now, the best way for a man to keep himself free from this offence, is, To keep him free from the society, at least the domestic and familiar society, the inward bosom-acquaintance of those, who think it a main part of their religion, to set such things before their eyes. The Ark and Dagon will not stand together: neither can a Crucifix, ordained to such an use, and Christ himself well dwell together under the same roof.  
I read in the second of Samuel 16. 7, that Shimei called David a man of Beliall: and being then guilty to himself of setting a thing of Beliall before his eyes, in the matter of Bathsheba, though Abishai would presently have taken Shimei his head from his shoulders, yet would not David suffer him so much as to touch a hair of his head: he took it as patiently as he did the reproving of Nathan the Prophet; though the one came to gall him, and the other to cure him. He saw the hand of God in it, that, having set a thing of Belial before his eyes, one should not be wanting to tell him that he was a man of Beliall. It was malice in Shimei, patience in David, justice in God. The malice of Shimei was afterward justly punished, the patience of David rewarded, and the justice of God ever admired. Nay, herein again appears the justice of God, that, if we set wicked things before our eyes for the committing of sin, God in his season sets the guilt of it before our eyes; being committed for the conversion of some: as, Psal. 51. 3, I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me; but, for the confusion of others, I will reproovet●ee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done, Psal. 50. 21. Therefore saith our Prophet, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.  
Before mine eyes. More danger there is of setting wicked things before this sense, than any other: and therefore our Prophet, having prayed GOD to turn his heart to the keeping of his testimonies, immediately addeth, Turn away mine eyes, O Lord, from regarding vanity, Psal. 119. 37; as supposing this later the readiest means and best way for attaining the former. But job steppeth yet one degree further, from a Prayer to a Vow, I have made a covenant with mine eye: why then should I look on a maid? 31. 1. And which is more, from a Vow to an Imprecation. If mine heart have walked after mine eye, let me sow, and let another eat, yea let my plants be rooted out, verse 7. This was the Vow and the Imprecation of this holy man; howbeit the common practice of men be that of Solomon; Thine eyes shall look upon strange women, and thine heart shall speak lewd things. I remember, I have read a Dialogue betwixt the Eye and the Heart, which of them should work most mischief; and the conclusion of it was, 
Ratio litem dirimit  
Definitivo calculo,  
Cordi causam imputans,  
Occasionem oculo:   
Reason takes up the matter, and decides the controversy, by imputing the cause to the Heart, and the occasion to the Eye; the Eye being as it were the Pander or Broker, but the Heart the Strumpet: though S. Peter seem to impute it to the Eye, Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, 2. Pet. 2. 14; or, as the Original reads it, full of an adulteress. Where we see (by a figurative manner of speech) the very chair and throne of wantonness to be seated in the Eye; howbeit it be in truth but the passage & pipe to convey it to the soul: yet such a passage as the Fathers generally understand of it, those passages of jeremy, Death hath climbed up by the windows, 9 21. And again, Lament. 3. (as the Vulgar reads it) Oculus meus depraedatus est animam meam, mine eye hath made a prey of my soul.  
Which, the very Heathens well understanding, in the dedication of the several parts of man's body to their several gods and goddesses (as, the cars to Minerva, the tongue to Mercury, the arms to Neptune) they leave the eye to Cupid, their god of lust, as being the fittest for his use; the proverb holding alike in inordinate lust, as in ordinary love, Out of sight, out of mind: Vbi dolour, ibi digitus; ubi amor, ibi oculus: as the finger always waits on grief, so doth the eye on lust. Whence it may be in the Greek, the same word (only by the change of a vowel) signifies both to see and to love. Valerius fitly calls the eyes the spies which lie in ambush for the un●lermining of other men's marriages. And Alexander, using a different phrase, shot at the same mark, when he called the Persian maids dolores oculorum, griefs of the eyes; and thereupon in my judgement, he wisely refused, that Darius his wife (whose beauty the Macedonians so much admired and commended) should be once brought into his presence; as fearing lest he who had manfully subdued so many nations, should himself be shamefully conquered at the sight of a woman: but on the other side, the Comedians, saith Clemens Alexandrinus, bring-in the wanton Sardanapalus, sitting in an ivory chair, and casting his eyes in every corner.  
Dinah goes a straggling through the country: whom when Sichem, heir to the Lord of the country, saw (says the text) he took her and lay with her, and deflowered her. It is noted of Potiphars' wife, that she first cast her eye on joseph, before she enticed him to folly; and of our Prophet, that from the roof of the King's Palace (their houses being square and flat on the top) he saw a woman washing herself. And what followed upon it you know: first goes videt hanc, then quickly comes after, visamque cupit, and instruments will not be wanting for potiturque cupita.  
— vidit sine veste Dianam,  
Praeda fuit canibus nec minùs ille suis.  
This irregular glancing, or inordinate gazing, is that which metamorphosies a man into a beast, and makes him a prey to his own brutish affections.  
The Devil knew full well the danger of this sense, when he presented before our Saviour's eye all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and Hezekiah learned it to his grief, when he stirred up such coals in the Babylonish Ambassadors by showing them his treasure, that they never left, till they came and fetched it away. I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish garment, saith Achan, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, and I coveted them, and took them. Thus as it is the instrument of wantonness, so is it of covetousness, and of gluttony and drunkenness too. Look not thou (saith Solomon) upon the wine when it is red, and when it shows his colour in the cup; in the end thereof it will hurt like a Serpent, and bite like a Cockatrice, Prov. 23. 31. So is it of pride; looking-glasses being nothing else but the artificial eyes of pride, as our natural eye is a kind of living lookingglass, by which so many stains and blemishes are not discovered in the face, as imprinted in the soul: and lastly, so it is of Idolatry; the Prophet Esay in his twentieth chapter, styling the Idols of Egypt the abomination of the eyes, twice within the compass of two verses, ver. 7. 8. Whence it is, in my judgement, that among all those idolatrous nations which worshipped false gods, and went whoring after their own in ventions, the greatest part have ever consented in worshipping the host of heaven, the Sun, the Moon or the Stars, which among all creatures the eye most admireth and delighteth in. Good reason than had our Saviour, to say, If thine eye be evil, all the body is dark, Mat. 6. 23: and Saint john, 1. Epist. 2. 16, to make the lust of the eyes one of those three fountains from which all other vices stream.  
The sonn●s of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair: and then follows that mischief which drew on the flood on the old world. The first woman saw the fruit of the tree of knowledge, that it was pleasant to the eye: and from thence issued that first sin, the mother of all the evil which we both do and suffer. Whence it may be, in the Hebrew the same word signifieth as well an eye, as a fountain; to show that from it, as from a spring or fountain, did flow both sin itself, the cause of sin, and misery, the punishment of both. And if our first parents were thus bewitched by the eye, and thereby received their bane in the state of innocency, when their appetite was yet subordinate to reason, and their reason to God, what can we promise to our selves, Qui animas etiam incarnavimut, who have made our very spirit a lump of flesh, prone to entertain vice; but, weak God knows, to resist it? They are in a manner composed of flax or tinder, apt to conceive fire, and to be inflamed by the least spark admitted by this sense: except it be speedily repelled or quenched by grace.  
Great reason than had our Prophet to pray, and we with him, Turn away mine eyes, O Lord, from beholding vanity: great reason had he to promise and we with him, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: the one, for the imploring of God's assistance, and the other for the quickening of our own endeavours.   

I hate the work of them that fall away, or turn aside: it shall not cleave to me.  
BEcause, such as set wicked things before their eyes, commonly turn aside after their own inventions and desires; therefore our Prophet having in the former part of this verse, promised not to set any wicked thing before his eyes, here he professeth to hate the work of them that turn aside or fall away.  
I hate] It is but Stoicism and vanity, to think that all passions either may be or should be utterly rooted out of the soul. They cannot, being as natural to the souls sensitive power, as the will and unsterstanding are to the reasonable: they should not, in that Saint Paul, censures it as a fault, to be without natural affection, 
Rom. 1. 30  in that being qualified and corrected by reason, they become useful for the executing of that which reason directs (they are good servans being kept under, but bad commanders, having gotten the mastery) and last, in that they are found even in the glorified Saints, in the blessed Angels, in Man before his fall, in Christ as Man, and are in holy Scriptures attributed to God himself.  
It is a good conclusion of Thomas; Animae paessiones malae moraliter dicend● non sunt, sed quae contra & praeter rationis iudicium sunt: The passions of the mind are not to be termed morally evil, but in that they are either against or beside the dictate of reason: And of Augustine before him, Interest qualis sit volunt as hominis: qui● siperversa est, perversos habebit hos motus; si autem recta est, non soluminculpabiles, sed etiam laudabiles erunt. It avails not a little, how the will of man stands affected: which if it be perverse, these affections will likewise be irregular; but if it be strait, they will not only be without fault, but deserve commendation.  
The ●ost universal, the most operative, and the most durable passions of the soul, are Love and Ha●red: they spread farthest, they pierce deepest, they last longest. Now, as all the other passions flow from love as their fountain, so doth hatred too. It may seem a strange assertion, yet is it certainly a true one, Cum nihil odi● habeatur nisi quod adversatur bono convenienti & quod amatur, omne odium ex amore nasci necesse est: since we hate nothing but what is contrary to the good we love, it cannot be, but hatred must spring out of love. Fear ariseth from some danger apprehended of losing the thing we love; grief, from the sense of the loss of that we love; and hatred, from the impatience of opposition against that we love: so that the more our love is, the more is our fear to lose that we love, the more our grief if we lose it, and the more our hatred to that which opposeth against it.  
Since than our Prophet's affection was such towards God, that his soul thirsted for him as a dry land where no water is; that his heart panted after him, as the heart brayeth after the water-brooks, that his favour was better to him than life itself, and his words sweeter than honey, more precious than thousands of gold and silver; it cannot be, but his hatred should answer in proportion to that which is opposite to God's law, & derogatory to his glory. No marvel then, that he not only mislikes, or dis-affects, or approoves not; but detests, abhors hates the work of them that fall away.  
An hatred there is of malice, and an hatred of zeal; the one profane & carnal, the other holy and divine: the one, as a stinking and poisonsome weed, shoots up every where through the field of the world: the other, as a precious herb or rare outlandish flower, comes up thin, and that but in a few men's gardens, neither prospers it long without much tending and cherishing. The one is sown in our hearts by that envious man, who hates the light, because his deeds are evil; the other, planted by that good Spirit, who hates all the workers of iniquity, Psal. 5. 5. Of it speaks our Saviour, The world hates me, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil: And our Psalmist, the type of our Saviour, They that hate me without a cause, are more in number than the hairs of my head.  
To hate those that hate us, is heathenish; to hate those that are harmless and innocent, is brutish; but to hate those that love us, and seek our good by telling us the truth, that is devilish. Am I therefore your enemy, because I tell you the truth? saith S. Paul to the Galathians: And Ahab to Eliah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? Yet this enemy of his it was, that brought him at last to an outward and seeming repentance at least, and consequently to the turning away of God's wrath in his days. This kind of hatred is one of those three bad daughters, born of three good mothers: Contempt being commonly the birth of Familiarity; Idleness, of Peace; and Hatred, of Truth. But, this is not of kin to the hatred our Prophet here speaks of▪ So far was he from hatred of the truth, that (I think) he loved and honoured the Prophet Nathan the better while he lived, for telling him the truth, when others flattered him. Once I am sure, that afterwards he gave him free access into his bedchamber, and named him a Commissioner for the declaring of his Successor: 
1 King. 1  but the hatred here spoken of, is of vice and superstition, arising from the love of truth and virtue: without which, he that is hottest in matters of religion, can be but lukewarm; and he that walks most upright, must needs halt between two opinions. This hatred then as it is commended in private men; so is it necessary in Magistrate; just anger being the whetstone of courage, and this hatred, of justice: which, as one truly says, delights not so much to see men severely punished, as justice duly executed; that is▪ hates the work, but loves the person: therefore saith our Prophet, I hate the work of them that turn aside; not the persons but the work, that is the object of his hatred, and the second thing I am to speak of.  
The work.] As we are not to love the vice for the man's sake, so neither are we to hate the man for the vice. It is proper to God alone, who as Creator hath ius vitae & necis, an absolute dominion over all his creatures (disposing of them at his pleasure) to affect or reject, to love or hate them, as he will; his will being indeed the measure of right, and the rule of justice. Unto Cain and his offering, he had no respect, Gen. 4. 5. First, he had no respect to Cain, his person; and then to his work, his offering: and yet he did him no wrong. jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated: and the Apostle adds, the children being yet unborn, neither having done any good, or evil. What shall we say then, Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Hath not the Pot●er power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? Shall the thing form, say to him that form it, why hast thou made me thus? Now, because we are to conform our wills to Gods will, that is, his revealed will (in as much as we cannot conform ourselves to that we know not, and he reserves to himself) we may therefore safely and justly hate those, whom God hath namely and particularly expressed that he hates; but, for others, we may and we ought to hate their lying & their fal●e ways, as our Prophet speaks: but for the Liars themselves, and those that walk in such ways, we have no warrant that I know, to hate them.  
There is a perfect hatred mentioned by our Prophet, Psal. 139: which Saint Augustine understands to be, when a man hates the manners, but loves the man; when he hates the action, but loves the person. False witnesses did rise up against me▪ they laid to my charge things that I knew not, saith he, Psal. 35; there is their action, that he hated: nevertheless when they were sick, I put on sackcloth, and humbled myself with fasting; there's his love to their persons. 2. Sam. 15. He prays against the wicked policy of Achitophel: O Lord, I pray thee turn the counsel fo Achitophel into foolishness; but against Achitophel himself, we find not that he prayed: howbeit, David had advanced him to honour, and he now sided with those Rebels that had taken up arms against him. It is to this purpose good advice of Saint Augustine, Hominem Deus fecit, praevaricatorem ipse se fecit; ama in illo quod Deus fecit, persequere in illo quod ipse sibi fecit; God made man upright, but they have found out many inventions to make themselves crooked: Love that in him which God made, but hate that in him which himself made. And in another place, Nec propter vitium oder is hominem, nec ames vitium propter hominem, sed oder is vitium, ames hominem. Many think they may love God, and yet hate their brother: but Saint john is bold to put the lie upon such, 1. john 4. 20; If any man say, I love God, & hates his brother; he is a liar. If any man like not the phrase, let him challenge him for it. Others think they may hate their brother, and yet God love them well enough: but them he tells, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him: and if not eternal life, than not the love of God, 1. joh. 3. 15. The object then of our hatred, must be the work, not the man: we must learn Parcere personis, dicere de vitijs.  
It is the commendation of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, Revel. 2. 6. This thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicholaitans, which jalso hate: not the Nicholaitans, but their deeds; and for those imprecations we read of in divers Psalms, or elsewhere in holy Scripture, seeming to infer or include hatred to the persons, of those against whom they be poured out, they are all either Indefinite, or Conditional, or Prophetical. Indefinite, without naming or aiming at any particular person: or if they be definite, naming some partilar person, then are they Conditional; intending in the first place, if God have so ordained it, Conversion; if not, in the second, Confusion: or if they be both definite and absolute, then are they Prophetical, non tam vota quam vaticinia, speeches of men inspired, not so much wishing what they foretell, as certainly foreseeing and foretelling that which of themselves they wish not, Vt in verbis quasi mal● optantis intelligamus praedicta prophetantis, saith Saint Augustine: or if they with it, it is either because they know by revelation it is the will of God, or that it makes for the glory of God. And thus Moses wished his own name to be razed out of the book of life, and Saint Paul himself accursed from Christ, and both rather than God's glory should be blemished by the scandalous imputation of the Gentiles in the rejection of the jews, his chosen people, To whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the service of God, and the promises. This was it likewise that troubled our Prophet: he was not so much moved for his own sake, as for God's cause: he doth not so much hate the work of them that forsake himself, as of those that forsake God: not so much of those who turned aside, or fell away from his friendship, as from the course of a virtuous and religious life, or from th' service of the true and living God.  
I hate the work of them t●at fall away. Whether in doctrine or in mariers, whether in convesation or in opinion, whether by impure life or false worship. His zeal in this case (an affection equally compounded of love and anger) was such, that it consumed him, and (as his own phrase is) ate him up: which though it were mystically spoken of Christ, yet is it literally to be understood of David; and yet withal his excessive grief, such that his eyes poured out rivers of waters, because men kept not God's law. Thus zeal kindled a fire within him, and his grief resolved him into tears; to teach us that in our heat to God's cause, we forget not to be tenderly affected towards men, but to join pity with our earnestness, and with our fervency, compassion; and to our compassion, must be added knowledge and discretion: otherwise, shall we be no better than those reprobate jews, who had zeal; but not according to knowledge: and out of this perfect composition, fervency, compassion, and discretion, ariseth that perfect hatred touched before; but here falling into its proper place, Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, & am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred, as if they were mine enemies, Psa. 139. 21. David would scarce have accounted them good Subjects, who should not have showed themselves enemies to them, who were enemies to him, and the State; but reason then, if himself would be reputed a good Subject unto God, or his Vicegerent on earth, he should proclaim them his enemies, who had proclaimed themselves enemies to God and religion.  
When Croesus was assaulted in the sight of his dumb son, 
Herodotus.  they write, the force of Nature wrought so powerfully in him, that it unloosed the strings of his tongue, and he cried out, Homo ne perimas Croesum. The truth of of the story I leave to be defended by the Authors of it: but this am I sure of, that scarcely any outward action more clears our inward grace of adoption, arguing us to be indeed the sons of God, then when we are truly sensible of dishonour offered to our father's name, when we embark ourselves in his quarrels, and (as our Psalmist speaks in another place) The reproaches of them that reproach him, fall upon us. It argued a righteous soul in Lot, to be vexed, or as the Original hath it, to be tortured, or racked, not so much with the opposite on, as the unclean conversation of the Sodomites: and it argueth in a Chrihian man the renewing of the image of God, stamped upon him in his Creation, and in a Christian Magistrate the acknowledgement of his Lieutenantship to be held from God, when he shows himself as forward to make laws, and draw his sword for the punishing of sacrilege as theft, blasphemy as murder, idolatry as treason, atheism as rebellion; finally, when by his actions it appears, that he is as zealous and careful of the honour and service of God, as of his own either gain or glory. How many have vainly spilt their blood for the defence of their mistress' beauty, or their own imaginary reputation! which had they done in defence of God and religion, against atheism, idolatry, or blasphemy, they had undoubtedly purchased both the renown and reward of Martyrdom.  
Now, as our Prophet professeth to hate the work of all those that set themselves against God and godliness; so of those most specially, who turn aside from the right path in which they have sometime trod, or fall away from that truth which they have formerly professed. It is true, that where true justifying and sanctifying grace is once throughly seated and settled in the heart, it can never utterly be rooted out: the degrees and measure of it may be impaired and abated, but the habit cannot be extinguished: the sense and feeling of it may be interrupted, but the essence & being cannot be abolished: the act and exercise of it may be for a time suspended, but the character remains indelible: which, being once imprinted upon the soul, can never afterward be blotted out or wiped away; inasmuch as Christ whom he loves, he loves to the end, john 13. 1. his gifts & calling being without repentance, R●. 11. 29. So then, this we must hold for a sure ground, Stella cadens non est stella, cometa fuit: A star that falls was never indeed a star, it was but a blazing Meteor. There may be an outward profession of doctrine, and participation of the sacraments; nay, more than so, in regard of the understanding, an inward enlightening in some measure; and a taste of the powers of the world to come, in regard of the affections, Heb. 6: yet all this but a counterfeit blaze. No marvel, then, if such not only turn, but turn aside; not only fall, but fall away: They go out from us, because, though for a time they were among us; yet indeed and in truth, they were never of us, 1. john 2. 19: but, it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them, 2. Pet. 2. 21. And better had it been for the Church, never to have brought forth or brought up such graceless children. These than it is, that David as a Prophet must hate, and as a Prince must punish; as being most injurious to the truth, most scandalous to the Church, most dangerous to the State, and most odious to God: but, above all, he must take heed that they prove not infectious to himself.  
Shall not cleave to me. No work of them that fall away; but chiefly, their work of Aposta●ie and falling away, That shall not cleave to me. As likeness is the cause of love; and That, of union: so dissimilitude is the cause of hatred; and That again, of separation. That which we hate, we suffer not to come, or at least not to abide near us: but either we remove it from us, or ourselves from it; nothing being more hateful in itself, and in the sight of God and good men, than to entertain and embrace that in ourselves, which we profess we hate in others. David then having professed, that he hates the work of them that turn aside, he could do no less than promise, it should not cleave to him. Were their arguments never so plausible, their power or number never so great, their nearness by friendship or kindred never so inward; though Israel play the harlot, yet let not judah offend: though Saul turn aside and fall away, yet that is no warrant for David; nay, rather let Saul's falling away serve to warn David. The one fell away and lost his Kingdom by it: but the other would not fall away, though it were to the gaining of a Kingdom, nay, all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them: they being temporal; but the sting, which follows upon this defection and final apostasy, eternal. Witness that desperate voice of cursed julian: who, sprinkling his blood in the air, cried out; Vicisti Galilaee, vicisti; O Galilean, thou hast overcome.  
Now, the way to keep us that this damnable work of apostasy cleave not to us, is, to keep us from cleaving to the Apostates themselves, or suffering them to adhere or cleave to us; and withal, to cleave fast to God. This was David's practice. For the first, Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names within my lips, Psalm 16. 4. So far was he from cleaving to them, or suffering them to cleave to him. And for the second, It is good for me to hold fast by God, Psal. 73. 27. And again, I have stuck to thy testimonies, O Lord, put me not to shame, Psal. 119. 31. This his utter disclaiming of the one, and sticking close to the other, was it that made him so bold in another Psal. Mine heart is fixed, O God, mine heart is fixed, 57 7; and so confident here, It shall not cleave to me. I conclude with the exhortation of the Apostle, Saint Paul, Take heed, brethren, lest at any time there be in any of you an evil heart and unfaithful, to depart away from the living God, Heb. 3. 12. And with the prayer of S. I●●de, verse 23. 24, Now unto him that is able to keep you that ye fall not, and to present you faultless before t●e presence of his glory with joy, that is, to God only wise, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, and dominion, and power, both now and for ever.   

Verse 4. The froward heart shall depart from me: I will know none evil; or, I will not know a wicked person.  
He had promised in the second verse to walk with a perfect heart: and here he promiseth, A froward heart shall depart from him. Now, though that part of his Vow be set before this in place, yet hath this the precedency of that in order: scales must first fall from S. Paul's eyes, before he can see clearly; and Naaman must first be cleansed of his leprosy, before his flesh come again as the flesh of a young child. We must first deny ourselves, before we can follow Christ; and the heart must first leave to be froward, before it begin to be upright: as the distemper of the body must first be removed, before health can be restored; and darkness first chased away, before the light break forth.  
In the Verse immediately going before, he professed he hated the work of those that fall away, or lepart from God. Now, the best way to provide, that himself might not be found faulty in that which he hated in others, was, to strive that a froward heart should depart from him. For, the more this forwardness decreaseth in us, the nearer we draw to God; and the closer it sticks unto us, the farther we wander from God. True indeed it is, that it can never utterly depart our souls, till our souls depart our bodies, and both body and soul depart this vale of tears. While the heart lives its natural life, it will also live in our hearts: and, as the heart is among the bodily members the first that lives, and the last that dies; so is this amongst all the corrupt affections of the heart: yet must we still labour to mortify it, that though it remain, yet it reign not in us; though it live, yet the strength of it be broken, and the head of it crushed.  
Again, in that he speaks of parting with a froward heart, he freely acknowledges, that though he were by grace a man after Gods own heart; yet by nature being without God as well as others, he could not be without this froward heart; neither his Calling, nor his Crown could privilege him in that Case: unless in becoming a King, he should leave to be a man; and being advanced in dignity, he should shake-off nature: which being void of grace, rather serves to deprave nature farther, than any way to correct it.  
Once in this Psalm he promised a reformation of his eyes, twice of his heart: therefore a double watch is to be set over the heart, in regard of any other member. Solomon begins with it, Prov. 4. 23, Keep thy heart with all diligence; or as the Original reads, abo●e all keeping, as a man would say with double diligence: for out of it are the issues of life. And from the heart he comes to the mouth, ver. 24. Put away from thee a froward mo●th; and from the mouth to the eyes, ver. 25. Let thine eyes look right on; and from the eyes to the feet, ver. 26. Ponder the path of thy feet; and from the feet to the hand, ver. 27. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left: thereby showing us, that the heart is as the first wheel of the Clock: if this be either righ●, or disordered, so are the rest. For, as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; so the eyes look, the feet walk, the hand moves.  
As the heart is the shop of the vital spirits, and they again the food of the natural life: so is it likewise the fountain of new birth, and That the beginning of our spiritual life. Those sacrifices, in which no heart was found, were by the Heathen counted ominous.  
Their conceit therein might be superstitious; but I am sure 'tis true, that those religious exercises in which the heart is wanting, cannot be acceptable unto God. Hear, then, with thine ●●res, but with thy heart too; pray ●●th thy lips, but with thy heart too; receive the● Sacrament with thine hand, but with thy heart too: otherwise, thy hearing, thy praying, thy receiving, being heartless, will in the end prove fruitless. Therefore doth our ●rophe● so often beat upon this heartstring, A froward heart shall depart from me.  
Forwardness is sometimes universally extended to the whole corruption of the heart: as, Psal. 58. 3, The ungodly are froward, even from their mother's womb: and so it includes both jeremy's deceitful heart, 17. 9, The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? and Ezekiels' stony heart, 11. 19 I will take from them their stony heart, and give them a heart of flesh: and Saint Stephen's uncircumcised heart; Acts 7. 51. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears: and Saint Paul's foolish heart, Rom. 1. 21. They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was full of darkness. And thus our froward heart is both stony, and uncircumcised, hard, an● impure, in regard of itself; deceitfu●● full of windings and turnings, in regard of men; and lastly, foolish, void of all true knowledge and understanding, in regard of God. Now, to this hard we must oppose a tender heart, compassionating the miseries of men, relenting at the threatenings of God, and bleeding in the consideration of its own natural hardness. To this impure we must oppose a clean heart, Create in me O God a clean heart; clean, though not from all stain, yet from the foul blots of gross sins; though not from all impurity, yet from hypocrisy. To this deceitful we must oppose a simple heart, sine plicis, without pleits and folds, speaking as we think, and doing as we speak: and lastly, to this foolish we must oppose a wise heart; wise I mean in things appertaining to salvation, and the mysteries of godliness.  
More specially, frowardness against God, in holy Scripture, is contracted either to stubbornness and rebellion, in not submitting our necks to the yoke of his law; or to repining and murmuring, in not submitting our backs to the rod of his chastisement. The first is perverseness and obstinacy, and it shows itself either in preferring the traditions of men before, or equalling them to the Oracles of holy Scripture, and the ordinances of Christ▪ or which is as bad, if not worse, in preferring the devices and desires of our hearts before the express injunction or inhibition of God's commandments: fair pretences may be made for the former; but for the later no colour, no excuse at all. I will instance only in the two last precepts of the first table, because they immediately concern the honour of God. Thou shalt not take my name in vain, saith God: if then I speak of him jestingly or inconsiderately, or swear by him rashly or falsely, knowing what he commands, and myself practice; Doth not this argue a froward heart?  
Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day, saith God. If then I spend it in gaming or idleness, in gluttony and drunkenness, in chambering & wantonness, knowing what he commands and myself practice; Doth not this argue a froward heart? This froward heart it is, that our Prophet doth here promise to put away. And surely not without great cause; since he had learned (no doubt) out of the 26. of Levit. ver. 24, If ye will not be reform, but will walk stubbornly against me, I will also walk stubbornly against you, I will punish you yet seven times: that is, in the highest degree. Neither could he be ignorant or forgetful of the message of Samuel to Saul, yet fresh in memory, To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of Rams: but rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as idolatry; Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King, 1 Sam. 15. 22. 23. Nay, himself had told us in another Psalm, 
Psal. 18. 26  speaking of God, With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wil● show thyself froward: or as the Original bears it, Thou wilt wrestle with the froward. Now, if God come to wrestle with man, though with the stoutest of men, the commander of heaven & earth with dust and ashes, it cannot but prove impar congressus, as the wrestling of a Giant with a Dwarf; we shall make no match with him: He it is that looseth the bond of Kings, and poureth contempt upon Princes, if they contemn him, job 12. As severe as they are towards their inferiors, if they carry themselves frowardly towards them; so severe is he to them if they carry themselves frowardly toward him. Let them always then remember, that Omne sub regno graviore regnum est:  
Every earthly kingdom must yield an account to a higher. And let them deal with God, as they would have others to deal with them: the same obedience which they expect from others, themselves must first perform to God. And the more and greater blessings they have received from him, the stronger is their obligation of obedience to him: specially considering that God demands it at our hands, as a thing not any way beneficial to himself (For, our goodness extendeth not to him, Psalm 16. 1) but only as profitable to ourselves. Neither doth he bind us to any blind obedience as the Padres do their novices; nor exacts at our hands the sacrificing of our sons and daughters, and the passing of them through the fire, as the Devils did of the Heathen: but only ties us to his will revealed in his word. The execution whereof is no less comfortable for this present life, then necessary for that which is to come. The first thing then, and the chief, in abandoning this frowardness, is, the submitting of our necks with all forwardness to the yoke of God's law; which though it seem at first to be burdensome to flesh and blood, yet that being once mastered, His commandments are not grievous, 1 john 5. 3. Nay, his yoke is easy, and his burden light, Mat. 11. 30.  
The next is the submitting our backs to the rod of his chastisement; and as the former required our obedience, so doth this our patience. For, after we have by our obedience done the will of God, yet even then we have need of patience for the finishing of the race that is set before us, Heb. 10. 36. It is a fair step to perfection & victory, when a man can say with the Church in the 44. Psalms, Though all this become upon us, yet forget we not thee, nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy covenant. And with Mauritius the Emperor, when he felt the utmost of misery, justus es Domine, & iusta sunt iudicia tua, Righteous art thou O Lord, & upright are thy judgements: & with that noble Lord of Plessis, when he had lost his eldest and his only son, and as I take it, his only child, a Gentleman of marvellous great hope, Tacui & non locutus sum, quia tu Domine fecisti: I held my peace and opened not my mouth, because it was thy doing O Lord. I deny not but the best may at times, when they feel the hand of God heavy upon them, grow pettish, and break out with job, Let the day perish wherein I was borne; or with Eliah, It is enough, now O Lord take awaey my life; or with jonah, I do well to be angry even unto death: (though that were indeed an high degree of impatience) or with our Prophet, Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious, and will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure.  
These motions may suddenly arise in their hearts, and they may speak unadvisedly with their lips: yet they take care that frowardness do not possess their hearts. And when they come to themselves, they are as ready to say with one of them, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, job 13. 15. And with another, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear none evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, Psalm 23. 4. When a man is once grown to this assurance, that God loves him; he takes every stroke at God's hand as a several pledge of his love, & kisses the very rod that strikes him; as knowing that the rod of Aaron, and the pot of Manna must go together: but, when that assurance wants, if God strike a man for his disobedience, it makes him fret with impatience, till that provoke another stroke: and the more he is st●●cken, the more impatient he grows; and again, the more impatient he grows, the more is he st●●cken: till in the end, instead of confession and submission, he break out into open defiance and rebellion against his striker, challenging his Maker of injustice, and from that to indignation and gnashing of teeth; which is nothing else, but a kind of forwardness proper to Devils & damned spirits. Now, the higher we are in place, the more impatient we commonly are of crosses, supposing we should have God at our beck, as we have men, & being apt to say, with Pharaoh, Who is the Lord that he should thus cross me: but let such take heed, lest while they imitate Pharaoh in his rebellion, they partake with him in his confusion.  
Now, as from the love of God flows the love of man: so from this frowardness of obstinacy and impatience towards God, for the most part issues a frowardness of harshness & bitterness towards men, opposite to that meekness which Christianity, and that sweetness of disposition which moral Philosophy teacheth us. The symptoms of it are, a bended brow, a frowning eye, a sharp tongue, a a hanging lip, a cloudy and lowering countenance; the ca●ses, self-conceit, and sco●●e of others, an overvaluing o● ourselves, & a disesteeming o● others; the eff●●ts, difficulty in access, and roughness in ●n●●●tainement, and in regard of others both ●eare and hatred, two inseparable companions.  
Absolo●s fair speech, and stretching forth of the hand, was it that stole the hearts of the men of Israel: as on the other side Rehoboams' crabbedness was it that forced the people to say, What portion have we in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of jesse, to your tents O Israel. One gentle word, one gracious look would then have won them for ever, whereas his dogged answers wrought him a deep and irrecoverable loss. Vt ameris, amabilis esto, the way to be beloved, is to be lovely in carriage, and amiable in condition: and the best guard of Commanders, is the love of inferiors.  
Non sic excubiae, non circumstan●ia pil●,  
Quam tutatur amor:—  
All the pole-axes and halberds in the world, cannot so safely guard the person of a Sovereign, as the love of his Subjects. Who can find in his heart to lift up his hand against such a Prince, Qui neminem à se dimisit tri●tem, who never dismissed any Petitioner with a tear in his eye, or a heavy heart; nay, he counted that day as lost, in which he had not done some body some special favour: which made him styled Deliciae generis humani, the darling of mankind while he lived; and being dead, 
Sueton us, of Titus.  Senatus tantas mortus gratias egit, la●desque congessit, quantas ne vivo quidem unquam atque praesenti, The Senate gave him more thanks, and loaded him with more praise being dead, then ever they did living and present. This virtue then of affability and courtesy (a word derived as it seems, from the Court) as it is commendable in private men; so in a Magistrate, such as David, is it in a manner necessary: as the contrary vice of frowardness, which in private men is uncomely and unchristian, in them is both dishonourable and dangerous. Let churlish Laban then deal discurteously with jacob; and Nabal (the same name by inversion of letters) with David and his followers, insomuch as one of his own family shall testify against him, He is such a son of Belia● that a man cannos speak to him, 1. Sam. 25. 17; yet shall he be held but a froward fool for his labour, he shall be cursed and hated of all men, as a disastrous Comet: when such as with David put away a froward heart, and crooked behaviour shall be honoured as lucky planets.  
It follows, I will know none evil.] or as both our vulgar English and last Translation read it, [I will not know a wicked person] the Original bears both: & if we take it the first way, it is to be referred to things; if the second, to men▪ Evil, in as much as it hath no Entity or Being it in self, but in good, and nothing can be farther known than it hath a Being, consequently it cannot be known of us in itself, but only by the knowledge of good; as darkness is by the knowledge of light, & sickness by the knowledge of health. Rectum est index sui et obliqui, the evenness of a strait line, is the best way to discover the unevenness of a crooked; and the knowledge of true syllogisms, the deceit of fallacies. This knowledge of evil then arising by reflection from good, is not in itself unlawful; in as much as God thus knows the utmost extent and possibility of evil, though never acted, or to be acted, and yet remains altogether untainted in himself, as the Sunbeams which glance upon sinks or dunghills. Yet this very knowledge, though not unlawful in itself, in regard of our corrupt nature to us it is dangerous; like a spark cast upon flax or tinder, which easily conceives fire. Adam's eating of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil, was it that brought all that ensuing misery upon himself and his posterity, yet was he than in the state of innocency. To know evil that we may run the farther from it, or hate it the more, is good: but now, there is such a sympathy between us and it, that for the most part the more we know it, whether it be by reading or by relation, or experience, the more are we enamoured of it.  
Ign●ti nulla cupid●.  
We need not then go seek it in books, or far countries: it will comesoone enough and fast enough of itself, it will come home to us, and find us out. Let us resolve then with our Prophet, that we will not seek so much as the knowledge of evil, farther than for the better practice of good.  
But I rather fasten upon our vulgar and last translation, I will not know a wicked person.] For a Magistrate to know wicked persons that he may punish them, is a part of his duty. And for a private man to know them, that he may shun their company, is a sign both of honesty and discretion. Take away the dross from the silver, 
Pro. 25. 4. 5  and there shall come forth a vessel for the Finer: take away the wicked from before the King, and his throne shall be established in righteousness; and this doth our Prophet promise in the last verse of this Psalm. But for a Magistrate or private man to know them, that is, to entertain them, to credit or countenance them, to admit them into their friendship or service, to lodge them in house with them, or place them in office under them; is that which our Prophet, and with him all good men, specially all good Magistrates, utterly disavow: considering the threefold hazard from thence manifestly incurred of Suspicion, of Infection, of Malediction. Of suspicion from others, of infection in themselves, of malediction and punishment from God.  
The hazard of Suspicion from others, in as much as we commonly guess at a man's inclination by the disposition of his servant or company, because (for the most part) birds of a feather will together. 1. Thes. 5. 22, the Apostle wils us to abstain from all appearance of evil: whereof this surely is one.  
The second hazard is of Infection; such being both the corruption of our nature, and the nature of our corruption, that, if the good and bad meet, the good is rather soiled by the bad, than the bad any way bettered by the good. It is written of Mezentius the tyrant, Corpora corporibus iungebat mortua vivis:  
He bound the dead and the living together; but the dead did not revive by the living: the living rather putrefied by reason of the dead. The fresh waters, running into the Sea, do not sweeten it, but are made brackish by it. It is but madness for a man to presume upon an Antidote in going to the Pest-house, when he may keep himself from it. It is indeed the property of oil, being poured into other liquors, to swim on the top, and keep itself unmixed; and of the Salamander, to lie in the fire and not be burnt: but, this quality is rare. Even in Paradise, the woman, whom God himself gave to the man, being infected by the Serpent, infects the man, and that at the first assault: and shall any man, now being shut out of Pardiase, and stripped of those supernatural helps and graces wherewith Adam was invested, think himself more able to resist, than he? No, no: Evil words corrupt good manners; much more a continual evil conversation. Reiterated importunity will at length make a breach upon the soul, though in our judgement never so throughly fenced: as the long playing of the Cannon batters the wall, and a continual dropping pierceth the stone. Samson held out long against Dalilah; so did Solomon against his outlandish wives: but, in the end, neither the wisdom of the one, nor the strength of the other, could privilege or secure them; the grace of Perseverance (as his Majesty well infers thereupon) not being a Flower that grows in our garden.  
The third hazard is of Malediction from God. For, as the blessing of God falls upon a whole society or family many times for one man's sake; as it did upon all that sailed with Paul for his sake, and for Joseph's sake upon ●otiphar and his house: so the plague and curse of God sometimes pursues a whole company for one man's offence; as it did all that sailed with jonas for his rebellion, and the whole host of the Israelites for achan's theft. S. john would not abide under the same roof with Ebion and Cerinthus, for fear it should fall down about their ears. And, touching Babylon, he heard a voice; Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, Revel. 18. 4: Like that of Moses to the Israelites, in the sixteenth of Numbers, verse 26, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye perish in all their sins. Neither is it injustice in God, if we encourage or countenance sinners with our presence or approbation (though we partake not with them in their sins) to wrap us in the same vengeance.   

Verse 5. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart, will I not suffer.  
Our Prophet having, in the latter part of the verse going before, professed in general, that he would not know a wicked person, that is, entertain him in his family & service, much less admit him unto his familiarity and friendship; he comes in this verse, and in the seaventh, to show in particular, what wickedness it is he means, and specifies four kinds; Slander, Pride, Deceit, Lies: Slander and Pride, in this verse; Deceit and Lies, in the seaventh. To these four several vices, he threatens four several censures: to the first, cutting off; to the second, not suffering; to the thi●d, not dwelling within his house; and to the fourth, not tarrying in his sight. The first and worst vice is Slander, and with it is joined the greatest punishment; destroying, or cutting off. First then, of the vice, which is bad enough in itself; but is here aggravated by two circumstances, the A●iunct and the Subject: the one as an Usher makes way for it; and the other as an attendant, bears up the train. Slander is a Devilish Sin, but privy slander makes it worse, and privy slander of a man's neighbour (that is, as I take it, of a pretended friend) worst of all. And the more nearly it touches him in his liberty or his life, in his goods or his good name: the greater the person is to whom it is brought, and upon whom it is cast: and the more confidently it is affirmed; the more damnable it is. I will begin with the naked vice itself, stripped out of the Circumstances.  
Slander is a vice of the tongue, which is but a little member; yet is it (as Aesop truly said) the best or worst meat that comes to the market: being well or ill used, it becomes the instrument of great good or much mischief. Being used to the glory of God, and the edification of our neighbour, it is the crown and glory of a man; as our Prophet calls it, Psal. 30. 12; To the end my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent, that is, my tongue. But on the other side, being abused to the dishonour of God, or the hurt of our neighbour, it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of Nature. This made our Prophet to pray, in one place, Set a watch O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips, Psal. 141. 3. And to promise in another, I will keep my mouth with a bridle, or with a muzzle; I will take heed to my ways▪ that I sin not with my tongue, Psal. 39 1. Which one lesson Pambus a famous professor in the Primitive Church, plying hard nineteen whole years together▪ (as himself witnesseth in the fourth book and eighteenth chapter of Socrates Ecclesiastical story) yet could he not learn it so perfectly as to take forth a new: which the Author imputeth not so much to the dulness of the scholar, as to the difficulty of the lesson, in as much as if there be any man that offends not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body. For every kind of beasts, & of birds, and of serpents, and things in the Sea, i● tamed▪ and hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man tame, It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison, jam. 3.  
The vices of this member are, Blaspheming, Swearing▪ Cursing, Dissembling, Reviling, and those two named here in my Psalm, Slandering, and Lying: but of the two, Slander named in my Text, is the worse, in as much as it includes a Lie; it is a lie cum additamento▪ a lie and somewhat else. And again, a lie though it be in itself always naught, yet doth it not always tend to harm, but slander doth; it being as the School hath rightly defined it, denigratio alienae famae, the smutting of a man's good name. As flattery daubs white upon black, so slander sprinkles black upon white; it is a false report (whether it be by speaking, or by writing and libelling) wounding a man in his good name: false, either by denying, disguising, lesning, concealing, misconstruing things of good report; or else, in forging, increasing, aggravating, or uncharitable spreading things of bad report; which though they be true, yet if I spread them, not knowing them to be true, to me 'tis sin: nay, though I know them to be true, and blaze them abroad not for any love to the truth, nor for respect to justice, nor for the bettering of the hearer, or the delinquent, but only to disgrace the one and incense the other, I cannot avoid the imputation of a slanderer.  
Secondly, it is said to be a wounding instrument, and that justly; ●t being compared by our Prophet sometimes to keen and cutting razors, sometime to sharp and piercing arrows, sometime to naked drawn swords, sometime to the poison of Asps and Adder's, sometime to spears and the teeth of wild beasts, and sometimes again, to hot burning coals; & by job, to a scourge, Thou shal● hide me from the scourge of the to●g●e, 5. 21. And yet none of these commonly make such a wound, but a cunning Surgeon will cure them without any great sign: whereas the rule of the Slanderer is, Calumniare a●dacter, semper aliquid h●ret, Lay on load boldly, somewhat will always stick by it: Many that heard the slander, shall never hear the truth; all men by their natural corruption, being more apt both to believe, and to publish the one than the other. The stroke of the rod maketh marks in the flesh, Ecclus. 28. 17, but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones.  
Besides, those other instruments wound commonly but one at one stroke, whereas a slanderous tongue strikes & wounds no less than three at a blow. The first and worst blow, he gives his own soul, infecting it with slander, and making his conscience guilty of a lie. The second lights on the soul of him, to whom he brings the false tales; for as we shall hereafter hear, the plausible and willing hearer, is as far forth liable to censure, as the ●ale-bearer. The third and last stroke, lights on the reputation of the party slandered: which though it be of the three the least; yet is it a very grievous wound, and the third part of my definition, 'tis a false report, wounding a man in his good name.  
The Latins call it Detractio, because it is a kind of theft, in that it stealeth from a man's good name; in in which sense our Saviour may be thought to have called them thiefs, whom he whipped out of the Temple; because by their buying and selling in it, they rob God of his honour, profaning the place consecrated to his worship. As then the Slanderer is a murderer, by wounding a man in his reputation; so is he a thief in stealing from his good name: nay, theft it is in the highest degree, and a degree beyond the highest kind of theft, properly so called▪ and therein I affirm no more, than the Prince of Schoolmen hath done before me. Vitium detractionis quo proximi l●ditur honor ex genere suo gravius est quam ●urtum: and his reason is; first, because restitution may more easily be made of goods than of good name: which, being once lost, for the most part is unrecoverable. Secondly, because a good name is dearer to a man of understanding, than his goods; in as much as it hath a nearer affinity with our spiritual good: And a good name (saith Solomon▪ Prov. 22. 1.) is rather to be chosen than great riches, being better than precious ointment, Eccles. 7. 2. Idest amplissimis & gra●●osissimis bonis corporeis, saith junius, Ointments are there named, because in those Eastern parts they were laid up among the most precious things, even in the King's Treasury, as appears Esa. 39 2, and were of all sorts highly esteemed; not only for civil use in anointing their faces and bodies, as well living as dead; but for sacred use in anointing their Kings, Priests, and Prophets. And this ointment is it, which in the 30. of Exodus is called the holy anointing oil, compounded of oil olive, and Myrrh, and Cinnamon, and Calamus, and Cassia, after the art of the Apothecary or the Perfumer: and whosoever compounded any like to it, or put any of it upon a stranger, by God's ordinance he was to be cut off from his people. Even before this rare and costly ointment, doth Solomon prefer a good report; and not without cause, since the one cannot keep the body from putrefying, as the other doth the memory from rotting. Well then, by how much more excellent and divine a good name is, by so much more damnable and pestilent is this vice of detraction.  
The Proverb is, Oculus & fama non patiuntur iocos, There is no good sporting with the eye, or with a man's good name; the least aspersion cannot but be offensive to either: and a wise man is as tender & sensible of the least touch upon the one as the other. He was no fool, at least in moral matters, who hath told us, that Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat, non solum arrogantis est sed & dissoluti, To be careless what men think or speak of him, is the part not only of a proud but of a loose mind. And he was no fool either in moral or spiritual, who exhorts us, Whatsoever things are of goodreport, if there be any virtue, any praise, to think on those things, Phil. 4. 8. Whereof Saint Augustine yields the reason, Propter ●os conscientia nostra sufficit nobis, propter vos fama nostra non pollui, sed pollere debet in vobis. In regard of a man's own self the keeping of a good conscience is sufficient, if he be clear to God-ward: but in regard of doing good to men, specially in public places, a good reputation is no less necessary: which he that by slander takes away, not only wrongs him from whom he takes it, but others with whom he communicates in virtue, and to whom he might prove beneficial; whereas standing in their opinion guilty of that whereof he is accused, though wrongfully, neither his speeches nor his actions can be so acceptable; and consequently, not so profitable unto them, as otherwise they might be. To which purpose is that of Thomas, Auferre alicui famam valde grave est, per cuius defectum impeditur homo à multis bene agendis. And likewise, that forenamed good Doctor & Pillar of the Christian Church, duly weighing these dangerous effects, caused these two verses (as Possidius reports it in his life) to be written in capital Letters over the Table where he took his ordinary repast; 
Quisquis amat dictis absen●ûm rodere vitam,  
Hanc mensam vetitam no verit esse sibi.   
He that loves to detract from such as are absent, let him know, that his presence at this table is not desired.  
Another thing, which much aggravates this vice and the foulness of it, is, that the Devil hath his name from slandering, and a nature nothing dissenting from his name: he slanders God to man, and man again to God, as his instruments do man to man. God he accuseth of envy to man, Gen. 3. 5, God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. And as he accuseth God, to man, of envy: so doth he man, to God, of hypocrisy; Doth job serve God for nought? hast thou not made an hedge about him, & about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the works of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land: but, put ●orth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.  
The Herbalists write of a certain Plant, which they call Divels-bit; so named (as they say) because, being of sovereign use for mankind, the Devil is thought (by simple people) of malice to bite off the root of it, which is found very small, or none at all. Now, the root of the union betwixt God & man, is the love of God to man, and the duty of man back again to God: and this root I am sure we may truly call Divels-bit; not that he can ever bite it off, but because he never leaves nibbling at it. This is he that stands before the woman, Rev. 12, clothed with the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a Crown of ●welve Stars, being now ready to be delivered of her child, and he as ready to devo●re it being delivered. His endeavour is, either by temptation to make a good purpose abortive, and to sti●le it in the womb or birth, if he may: or if not that, by slander to devour it being brought into the light. Let the slanderer then remember, as often as he opens his mouth to that end, whether it be simply to disgrace another, or by his disgrace the more to commend and justify himself; that, as it is a divine property, To cover sin, where is hope of amendment, with the mantle of charity: so, To fain a fault where it is not, or to amplify and extend it beyond truth where it is, is a devilish condition: yet that which makes it worse, is, the doing of it in secret, Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour.  
This is the Adjunct that goeth before it, the Usher that makes way for it: which notwithstanding is so inwardly essential unto the nature of it, that some put it in the very definition, as a masterpiece; making open false accusation (whether in judgement or otherwise) to be Calumny or Sycophancy; but secret, Obloquy or Detraction: the ground of the former being commonly anger or revenge, hope of reward or favour; but of the later, Emulation or Envy, which is nothing else but an overgrown and inveterate anger.  
And in regard of this quality of seeking corners, it may well be ranged among the works of darkness; and the slanderer himself, among those creatures which delight in darkness. With the Mole, he always works under ground; and, with the Owl, he shuns the light: in which regard, in our Language is it called backbiting, in as much as the Author of it loves not to stand to it, or to be brought in question for the avouching of it; but, like a coward, not daring to look a man in the face, nor to give him time to draw in his defence, he assaults him behind at unawares, and thrusts him through: like a dog, he bites a man by the shins, before he bark; and hurts, before his malice be espied: as some kinds of lightning melt the blade in the scabbard, it remaining sound and entire.  
These secret whisperings (as the Apostle calls them, Rom. 1. 29, and sets them down as one of the marks of a reprobate mind) like the wind, which creeps-in by the chinks and crevices in a wall, or the cracks in a window, prove commonly more dangerous than a storm that meets a man in the face upon the Champain. And the saying is, Avento percolato & inimico reconciliato libera nos, Domine; from such kind of whisperers, good Lord, deliver us: which are so near of kin to backbiters, that, in the place before alleged out of the Romans, they are set immediately before them; and, in the 2. Cor. 12. 20, immediately after them. Yet Calvin, therein following Thomas, puts this distinction between them, that the Backbiter intends the impeachment of a man's good name, but the whisperer breach of friendship, Oblocutor intendit infamiam, susurr● discordiam: which is the worse of the two, in as much as friendship as far exceeds reputation, as reputation doth riches; reputation being referred to friendship, as riches is to reputation.  
There be six things (saith Solomon, Pro. 6. 16.) which the Lord hates, yea seven are an abomination unto him; among which the last and worst is, He that soweth discord. I will shut up this point with the exhortation of the Apostle Rom. 16. 17, Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions, specially by these kinds of slanderous whisperings, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them.  
The second thing, which in my text aggravates this offence, is the person offended, a man's neighbour: He that privily slandereth his Neighbour. In the largest sense, Proximus tuus est qui tecum natus est ex adam's & Eva, saith Augustine, He is thy neighbour, who is borne of the same race with thee of Adam and Eve. Thus is it taken in the ninth and tenth Commandments, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour: Thou shalt not coet thy neighbour's house. And by our Saviour in the tenth of Saint Luke's Gospel. And I deny not, but it may thus be understood, and be as generally extended here in my text: Yet because our Prophet here chiefly intended the ordering of his household, I think this word is here to be contracted to such as dwell together under the same roof, and converse together in the same family: which is favoured by Montanus his Translation, Obloquentem socio suo, him that slandereth his fellow.  
It is a bad bird, they say, that defiles his own nest: and surely it is a sign of little grace, when a man slanders those that should be nearest and dearest unto him; when Cham uncovers his father's shame; when Siba by presents and false suggestions obtains his Master's inheritance, 2. Sam. 16; when the Mistress of the house by slander & wrongful accusation shall cause her servant, her faithful servant joseph, to be cast into prison. It was the blow of Bru●us that struck deepest into Caesar; & 'tis the slander of a pretended friend that gives the most dangerous wound.  
Such are excellently described by Bernard, in his 24. Sermon upon the Cantitles, Detractores autem quodam simulatae verecundiae fuco, etc. The Slanderers, under the colour of feigned modesty, labour to shadow that malice which they cannot keep in: you shall see them send forth deep sighs; and with a kind of gravity and slaiedness, with a sad look and whining voice, to pour forth their slander: which passeth by so much the more plausibly, as it is thought by those that hear it, to proceed not from any ●nvious, but a condoling affection. I am very sorry (saith he) for him, because I love him, and have often admonished him thereof, but could never reclaim him: the thing was known unto me before, but it should never have been published by me; yet now that it is blown abroad by others, I cannot deny the truth, indeed it is so. Hitherto Bernard. And who would think that a contemplative Abbot, living within the cloisters of a Monastery, should be so perfect in the tricks of the Court? And so I come from the vice to the Censure, from the slanderers cutting & wounding of others, to the cutting of him off; Him that privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I destroy, or cut off.  
He promiseth of other offences, he would not suffer them, they should not dwell within his house, or tarry in his sight; but of this, like a rotten incurable member when no other remedy will serve the turn, off they must. He would not himself raise slanders upon innocents, that he might enter upon their possessions, and then cut them off; as jezabel dealt with Naboth: but he would rather right the innocent, by cutting off the slanderer.  
Now, a double kind of cutting off there is; either from favour, or friendship or service, & that's for private persons: or from the participation of religious exercises with the Church: and that's for the Magistrate Ecclesiastical; or from liberty, by banishment; or lastly, if the case so require, from life itself, by inflicting of death; and that's for the Civil Magistrate: and this case in the levitical Law was only when the slander reached to the life of him, upon whom it was raised, Deut. 19 19 He that testifies falsely against his brother, ye shall do to him as he thougth to have done to his brother: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, life for life. But for private men, all the cutting off they can use, is the shutting of their doors, and the stopping of their cares against them; making demonstration, by speech or countenance, of distasting their base practice; according to that wholesome advice of the Apostle, Ephes. 5. 11, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reproove them. And surely all honest men have reason to do it, not only in that they have reason to conceive, that he who brings a slander upon another to them, will be as ready upon occasion to carry a slander upon them to another; but withal because Solomon tells us, that the wicked giveth heed to false lips, and a liar hearkeneth to a naughty tongue, Prov. 17. 4. It it a shrewd sign that a man is that way disposed himself, when he giveth way to others without any check or control. And beside, it is a conclusion agreed upon by the best Divines, Audience detrahentem cui possit resistere, sed ei placet detractio, eiusdem detractionis reus est: He that heareth the slanderer quietly when he may resist him, so as the slander seemeth to please him, he is becomne guilty of the same offence. Wherewith that of Bernard in his second book de Consideratione ad Eugenium accords, Detrabere aut detrahentem audire quid horum damnabilius sit non facile dixerim: To detract, or to listen to the detraction, which of these two is the worse I cannot easily define: the one having, as he addeth, the Devil in his tongue; the other in his ear. And of Isidore, in his third book de Summo bono, Non solum ille reus est, qui falsum de alio profert, sed & is qui citò aurem criminibus praebet: He is not only guilty, that raises a false report of another, but he also who readily listens thereunto. The ground hereof is taken from the last verse of the first to the Romans, Not only they which commit such things are worthy of death, but they also that consent unto them that do them. Now consent is either indirect, when a man resists it not being in his power; or direct, in advising or enticing to the doing of it, or in abetting of it, or delighting in it being done.  
It is the Receiver that makes the thief, and a smiling countenance and open ear that makes and maintains a Slanderer: Whereas on the other side, As the North wind driveth away the rain; so doth a frowning look the slanderous tongue, Pro. 25. 23. It is like the casting of a dart, or the shooting of an arrow against a flint, or piece of brass, it reflectenth back again upon the face of the shooter. Et discit non libenter dicere, quod videt non libenter audiri; He learns not to speak that willingly, which he finds to be unwillingly heard. Therefore it is that our Prophet joins both together, Psal. 15. Who shall abide in thy tabernacle, or who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor receiveth a false report against his neighbour: And so doth the Poet: 
— Absente● qui rodit amicum,  
Qui non defendi● alio culpante.   
They both are guilty of 
Denigratio alienae famae.  
Hic niger est, hunc tu Romanc cavett.   
Thus far a Magistrate may & must go with private men: but he must not stand here, he must proceed one step further, and that is to punishment. It was none of the worst sayings of Domitian, though himself none of the best Emperors, Princeps qui delatores non castigat, irritat: His meaning I take to be, not so much of lawful informers, as wrongful accusers: For, righteous lips are the delight of Kings, and they love him that speaketh right. Prov. 16. 13. Though they be the chief of men, yet men they are: and having their persons confined to places, they cannot see and hear all things themselves. Many things they must of necessity see by other men's eyes, and hear by other men's ears: Yet requisite it is, that such as they either employ, or permit to be their eyes or ears, should be men of known trust and tried faithfulness; & even then too, are they to keep one ear open for the defence of the party accused.  
Qui statuit aliquid parte inauditâ alterâ,  
Aequum licet statuerit, haud aquus fuit.  
As it is true, Si sufficiat negasse, nemo erit nocens, If a bare denial were sufficient, no man would be guilty: So is it as true, Si sufficiat accusasse nemo erit innocens, If a bare accusation were sufficient, no man should be innocent. A naked information, or that which the Lawyers call Clamorosa insinuatio, a common fame, is enough to give just occasion to a farther inquiry: but not to a final Sentence.  
Descendam & videbo, I will go down and see, saith God himself, of Sodom itself, whether they have done altogether according to the cry which is come unto me. The phrase of descending to see, is not so proper to God, whose eye pierceth through the bowels of all things, as it is a kind of descending to our capacities, and for our instruction, specially his deputies and vicegerents on earth; who except sometimes they descend from their majesty & throne of State, to a familiar search of truth, themselves will often be carried on the wrong side, & wrong others.  
I conclude what I have to say at this time, with the grave and wise exhortation of the Apostle, Galat. 5. 15. If ye bite and devour one another, take heed ye be not consumed one of another; I take him specially to be understood of biting by a slanderous tongue; of which our Prophet here, He that privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off.   

Him that hath an high look and a proud heart, will I not suffer.  
AFter Slander, our Prophet ranks Pride in the next place: and sure they are so near of kin, that he could not well set them far asunder; Pride being commonly both the mother and the nurse of Slander. For, when we have once a good conceit of ourselves, we are apt for the slandering of others, that thereby either our vices may in some sort be justified, or our virtues shine the clearer. I deny not, but Slander (as you have heard it proved in opening the former part of this verse) sometimes ariseth out of malice, and seeking revenge, or breach of friendship; sometimes out of covetousness, in seeking to gain by it; sometimes out of ambition, in seeking to rise by it; but, more often out of pride, in seeking credit to ourselves, either by forging false reports, or by enlarging true, tending to the discredit of others. Hence is it, that the Apostle, in 2. Cor. 12. 20, sets swellings next to whisperings; the one being a branch of Pride, as the other is of Slander. And Solomon, in the sixth of the Proverbs, ver. 17, couples together haughty eyes and a lying tongue; they being the two first of those seven which the Lord hates, and his soul abhors: nay, our Prophet himself joins them in one verse, Psa. 40. 5, Blessed is the man that hath set his hope in the Lord, and turned not to the proud, and such as go about with lies: insinuating, it may be, that the slanderer, who goeth about with lies, as a pedlar with his pack, is as the broker; and the proud man, as the merchant or chapman to whom he vents his wares: for, as the slanderer is as ready to receive lies, as to coin them; so is the proud man as ready to receive slanders, as to raise them.  
The way, then, to purge the tongue from Slander, is, to keep the heart from Pride: and the best means to free a family from the one, is, to rid it of the other. Therefore, our Prophet having promised, in the former part of this verse, to cut off him that privily slandereth his neighbour; here he voweth, not to suffer him that hath an high look and proud heart; or, as some Translations, have it, a proud look and a high heart. Elatumoculis & latum pectore, sayeth Musculus: vastum cord, or turgid● cord, saith Arias Montanus: tumentem anime, saith junius. The phrases are somewhat different, but they all aim at the same mark, and are all sufficiently warrantable by the Original. We are, then, in the first place to consider of the vice here censured; It is Pride, both outward in the look, and inward in the heart. Secondly, of the censure opposed unto it; It is▪ not suffering: so insufferable a vice it is. Him that hath an high look and proud heart, will I not suffer.  
Had our Prophet said, I will not suffer a proud heart; the question might have been, How we should come to know it: he therefore, to ●ase us of that doubt, takes the right way to discover it by an high look; God having so both ordained and ordered it, that our secret thoughts and hidden affections should be manifested to the world by outward acts. What man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? saith the Apostle, 1. Cor. 2. 11. But, there he speaks of a direct and immediate, of a primary and infallible knowledge, which is proper to God, and God alone; in as much as he it is, and he alone that searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, jer. 17. 10. No man, no devil, no Angel, no created substance, can possibly attain to that, except it be by divine dispensation, by revelation supernatural. The ordinary knowledge then which we have of the heart, is gathered by discourse of reason, by observation of marks & effects; as the physician ghesseth of the disease, by the Symptoms. We judge of the weather, by the face of the sky; of the motions of the wheels of a clock or a watch, by the pointing of the Index: we judge of the motion of the Sun, by the progress of the shadow in the dial: we judge of the motion of the heart, by the beating of the pulse: we judge of the fountain, by the stream which issues from it: and, lastly, we judge of the depth of the foundation, by the height of the building which is raised upon it: and as justly may we gather the pride of the heart from an high look. judge not, lest ye be judged, saith our Saviour, Mat. 7. 1. And his Apostle, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will lighten things that are hid in darkness, and make the counsels of the heart manifest, 1. Cor. 4. 5. But they both speak of an uncharitable, unadvised peremptory and final judgement; not so much touching the present disposition of men what they are, as their future state what they shall be.  
This then notwithstanding, as we lawfully may and usually do judge of the passions of the mind (of fear, of hope, of grief, of joy, of hatred, of love, of anger, of jealousy) by outward signs: so may we as lawfully judge of the virtues or vices of the soul by outward effects; as it were of the goodness of the tree by the fruits, or of the value of coin by the stamp set upon it. And more safe it is to judge of vices than of virtues; in as much as few are so desperately wicked, but they desire at least to appear good. Virtue may be counterfeit, and that so cunningly, as the imitation shall seem to exceed the copy; the counterfeit, the truth: but yet I think was never man so mad as to counterfeit a vice; we labour rather by all means to conceal it: yet we cannot do it so cunningly, but that it shows itself at times, as it were in a glass, either in our speech, or in our apparel, or in our gait, or in our countenance, or in our actions, or in all. And doubtless the wise observation of these, is beyond all the rules that either judiciary Astrology by casting nativities, or Physiognomy by inspection of faces, or Chyromancy by beholding the lines of the hand, can afford. Of these than it may be truly said, Qui bene conijciet, vates hic optimus esto.  
But, amongst all vices, there is none (only drunkenness excepted) that discovers itself sooner than pride. For the speech, we read of a bragging & boasting mouth, a mouth of pride, jude ve. 16: for the gait, we read of a foot of pride, Psal. 36. 11: for apparel, of a crown of pride, Esay 28. 1; of a chain of pride, Psal. 73. 6. So that pride in the heart can no more hide itself, than fire that lies in the bosom, or oil that is wrung in the fist. Many that know not the man, yet point at him as he walks the streets, and say, There goes a proud fellow: which, men usually pronounce of no vice beside, but the drunkeard; because these two chiefly bewray themselves: and therefore doth the prophet Habbacuc join them both together, 2. verse 5.  
When a man shall see a cloak embroidered over with woods, and parks, and Lordships, and lined within with obligations, and bands, and statutes; may we not justly say, that such a man is so far from cloaking his pride, that he proclaims it in his cloak? It was said of old, that soft raiment was the wear in King's Courts; whereas, nowadays, it is so bedaubed with gold and silver, so loaden with pearl and precious stone, as it is hard to judge, whether it more burden their bodies, or lighten their purses. The Poet could say of the women of his time; Matrona incedit census induta nepotum.  
And another: — Pars minima est ipsa puella sui.  
But, what would they say? or, rather, what would they not say, if they lived in these our days, and saw that we see; when, for apparel, a man can see little or no difference betwixt the Lord and the Tenant, the Master & the Servant, the Prince and the Subject?  
But, what a marvellous thing, yea what a madness is it, To see a man, created according to the image of God, & Lord of all the visible works of his hands, to grow proud upon the furs of beasts; upon silks, the excrements of worms; upon gems, or gold, or silver, somewhat better concocted and finer part of the earth; or, as the Prophet calls it, thick clay? Hab. 2. 6. Yea, to grow proud of that which he carrieth about him, as a prisoner doth his manacles or fetters, in token of his offence; our raiment being both the effect and the badge of the fall of our first parents, and of our fall in them. Had they stood in their first integrity, and we in them, we should no more have been ashamed of our nakedness in our age, than in our infancy: whereas now, being disrobed of original justice, we are driven to seek these cover, partly for defence, and partly for hiding our shame.  
If the clothing of Solomon in his royalty (who had the rarities of the known world at his command) were inferior to that of the Lily; why should we think the better of ourselves for a gay coat, or a acquaint fashion, or a fringed rose, or a fine feather? All that we can get by it, is this, that in covering our bodies, we discover to the world the humour of our minds: by proud apparel we disclose a proud heart, but yet more by a proud look; and therefore says our Prophet, Him that an high look and proud heart.  
As we find a man in what Inn he is lodged by the sign: so we know whether pride have taken up her lodging in the heart, by the sign of the look. As a wanton look is a sign of a lustful heart, and a sober look of a chaste heart, and a sad look of a heavy heart, and a cheerful look of a merry heart, and a modest look of an humble heart: so is an high look of a proud heart. By this, as one truly says, a proud heart is traced unto, as a Deer or Hare are traced to the place where they be, by their footing.  
A difference I find in holy Scripture betwixt Oculus elevatus, and elatus oculis: the one implies a look lifted up to God; the other, lifted up above our brethren. The former our Prophet professes Psal. 121. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence mine help shall come: and our Saviour practised it, john 11. 41. jesus lift up his eyes & said, father I thank thee, because thou hast heard me: and so did Stephen, Acts 7. 55. Being full of the holy Ghost, he looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now, this kind of lifting up the look, in as much as it serves or helps to lift up the soul, either in an holy confidence, or heavenly, contemplation, or both; is not only lawful but commendable, and 'tis a token of a lowly mind. But this high supercilious look, this lifting up of the eyes here spoken of, is when a man beholds those that are under him with a scorfull and disdaining countenance; like one that looks down from an high Tower, to whom, men walking under, seem to be but crows in comparison of himself: and this elatus oculis is that doth manifest la●um cord; and therefore doth our Prophet join them both together: again, Psal. 131. 1. Lord I am not high minded. But how doth that appear? I have no proud looks; and so doth Solomon, Pro. 21. 4. An haughty look and proud heart, which is the light of the wicked, is sin. When a man by facing, and strutting, and bearing his head aloft, would have all men that see him take notice of his noble descent, of his honourable place, of his great estate, of his comely personage, or some singular quality, or admirable excellency that is in him, or he thinks to be in himself; his haughty look is an evident sign, an argument infallible of his proud heart: and herein is the look more offensive than the heart; in that, though the pride of the heart be more odious to God, yet is the haughtiness of the look more scandalous to men. Nay, in the 6. of Prov. It is one & the first of those six & seven things which God hateth, and his soul abhorreth; & therefore will he also with such severity punish it, as he threateneth by his Prophet, The high look of man shall be humbled, and the loftiness of men shall be abased, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, Esa. 2. 11.  
Thus much of outward pride, specially in the look, and the discovering of the pride of the heart by it: we now come to the proud heart itself, the true cause and fountain of all outward pride; and howsoever outward pride cannot be without this, yet this may be, and sometimes is without it.  
An high look and proud heart will I not suffer. By some it is rendered, Latum cord, a large heart. Now, the heart may be enlarged, either by knowledge as Salomon's was: God gave him wisdom and understanding exceeding much, & latitudem cordis, and a large heart, even as the sand upon the Sea shore. 1. King. 4. 29. Or by sanctifying grace, whereof our Prophet, Psal. 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandments, when thou shalt have enlarged my heart: or by covetousness, whence some render it, Insatisbili cord; or by joy, for as sadness contracts and draws it together, so joy dilates and enlarges it: or lastly, by pride, not containing itself within its own bounds; but swelling like the Sea, and being puffed up like the stomach that is filled with wind. And as the swelling of the spleen is very dangerous for impairing the health & strength of the body, and of the sails for the overbearing of a little vessel: so this swelling of the heart is, of all spiritual diseases, the most dangerous to the soul; whether it arise from the gift of temporal blessings, of riches, of beauty, of birth, of power, of eloquence, of knowledge; or from an opinion that we have those virtues in us, which indeed we have not; or that we have them in a greater measure and perfection, than indeed we have; or that we have them from ourselves and our own industry, not from God: or that we have obtained them from God, but by our own merit: or lastly, that by reason of them we over-value ourselves, and despise others.  
And herein lies the great danger of this vice, that it arises out of virtue itself, though not of itself, but by reason of our corruption; and by that means, the Devil both stains the work, and steals away the reward. It is impossible to have good parts and not to know it: & a very difficult thing it is for a man to know so much touching himself, & not thereupon to be the better opinioned of himself: with the very increase of sanctification, if we take not good heed this creeps-in; & which is strange, is noted to spring even out of humility. A secret pride is sometimes occasioned by not being proud: and then is it more deformed, than if it appeared in his own proper colours. As Saint Hierome noted long since, Multo deformior est superbia quae sub quibusdam humilitatis signis latet: And as it occasionally springs out of the life and flower of virtue: so doth it out of the ashes of dead vices, the carcases of mortified sins; as worms do of rotten timber.  
Cum bene pugnaris, cum cuncta subacta putaris,  
Quae magis infestat vincenda superbia restat.  
It is like the shirt, the first thing we put on when we come into the world, and the last we put off when we go out of the world. It runs through all estates: it infects the Artificer, the Soldier, the Lawyer, the Citizen, the Scholar, the Courtier, the Counsellor, and hath Vniversalem quandam influentiam in omnia vitia, saith the School-man, an universal kind of influence into all vices; in as much as it is an aversion from God, which is the first essential part of all vice. It infected the Angels in heaven, unto whom that of the Babylonian King is applied by the Ancients, I will ascend into heaven, and exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will ascent above the height of the clouds, Esay 14▪ 14. It infected our first parents in Paradise. Primi hominis peccatum primum superbia fuit, qua quoddam spirituale bonum supra mensuram suae conditionis appetivit. The first sin of the first man, was pride, by which he longed for a certain spiritual good, above the reach and capacity of his condition. It is the conclusion of Aquinas, and seems to answer rightly to the Serpent's suggestion, God doth know that when ye shall eat thereof, ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.  
Lastly, Pride, by Divines is ranged among the seven captain or capital sins; so called, because from them the rest stream, as from their welheads. Nay, by Gregory it is made the Queen and Mistress of the capital vices themselves. Ipsa vitiorum Regina superbia, saith he, cum devictum plenè cor ceperit, mox illud septem principalibus vitijs quasi quibusdam suis ducibus devastandum tradit, ex quibus vitiorum multitudines oriuntur: Pride the Queen of vices, having once taken full possession of the heart, delivers it over to the seven principal sins, as it were to her chief Leaders, by them to be laid waste, and from hence all the following troops of enormities ensue. And so I come from the Vice to the Censure; Him that hath an high look and proud heart, I will not suffer: or as some Translations have it, more literally therein agreeing with the Original, Ipsum non potero, I cannot suffer.  
Now the reasons which chiefly moved him not to suffer this vice, touched him partly as he was a reasonable man, endued with intellectual and moral virtues; partly as he was a member of the Church, and the child of God, inspired with the spirit of God; partly as he was an householder, the father of children, the master of servants, the head and governor of a family: and lastly, in part as he was a King the Sovereign of a populous and mighty nation.  
First, then as a reasonable man, he knew there was nothing in man, which could in reason make him proud.  
Vnde superbit homo? cuius conceptio turpis,  
Nasci poena, labour vita, necesse mori.  
Whence should a man grow proud? whose conception is shameful, his birth painful, his life toilsome, his death necessary. The days of his pilgrimage here on earth are few and evil: and yet even in those few, subject he is to infinite infirmities in his body, partly by casualties from without, and partly, by diseases from within; to infinite error & ignorance in his mind, to infinite perverseness & distraction in his will: he comes whining into the world, & departs groaning out of it; he shooteth forth as a flower and is cut down, he vanisheth as a shadow, & continueth not; his flesh is but as grass, the wind bloweth over it, and it is withered, and the place thereof shall know it no more; his breath goeth forth, and he returneth to his earth, and then all his thoughts perish.  
Secondly, as a member of the Church and child of God, he had reason to oppose pride. As a member of the Church, in as much as schisms and heresies, sects & separations, which rent and molest the Church, spring for the most part out of a vain affectation of singularity: as a member of the Church, he knew that man in his best estate was moulded out of the dust of the earth; that after the fall, his soul was spotted with the leprosy of sin; to which, by the daily adding of infinite actual transgressions, if God should enter into judgement with him, he were not able to answer one for a thousand.  
Again, as Gods dear child, he had great reason to oppose against those, who are of all the greatest Rebels against God. The Prodigal is an enemy directly to himself, indirectly to God: the Covetous an enemy directly to men, indirectly to God: but the Proud is a direct enemy to God himself. For whereas other sins arise, some out of infirmity, some out of ignorance, some out of a desire of profit, or pleasure, or honour, or ease, or revenge; the proud man hath no cause to be proud, but Pride itself, which saith like Pharaoh, I will not Obey. Superbia (saith Aquinas) habet aversionem ● Deo, ex hoc ipso quod non vult Deo & eius regulae subijci: Pride hath an aversion from God, even for this very cause, because it will not be subject to God and his law: and thereupon he quotes that of Boëtius, Omnia alia vitia fugiunt à Deo, sola superbia se Deo opponit; all other vices fly from God, pride alone stands out, and makes head against him.  
And as pride resists God in a special manner, so God in a special manner resists it; as both Saint Peter tells us in his first Epistle, the fifth Chapter, and fifth verse: and Saint james in his fourth chap. and sixth vers. Which he manifesteth to the world in punishing this vice in a special manner, by letting a man fall into other sins, for the correcting or curing of Pride. He lets a man fall into in continency, into drunkenness, into murder, into theft, that so he may learn to blush at his pride. The Philosophers of the Gentiles when they knew God, and yet in the pride of their heart would not glorify him as God, God gave them up to vile affections for their punishment: but for the cure of his blessed Apostle, lest he should be puffed up with abundance of revelations, he sent him the messenger of Satan to buffet him: which was either a sin, or doubtless a strong solicitation to sin. When the Israelites were to possess the Land of Canaan, the inhabitants were not utterly driven out; lest the wild beasts should devour them: and God hath left the relics of Original sin in the best, while we are here in warfare upon earth; lest it being utterly vanquished, we should be made a prey to self-love, which is a branch of pride; it being either Amor illicitus propriae excellentiae, or appetitus celsitudinis illicitae: An unlawful love of our own worth, or a longing for an unlawful height.  
That sin than must of necessity be very odious in the sight of God, which he prevents, or scourges, or reforms with other grievous sins: and being so odious to God, it cannot but be very displeasing to the sons of God. If God denounce war against any man, all the creatures are ready to serve him in their course: those then that he proclaims Rebels, the least that we can do (if we would show ourselves good and faithful Subjects) is, To profess that we may not, we must not, we cannot suffer them; in as much as To lodge a known traitor in our house, or to give him countenance, or to converse familiarly with him, and then to give out that we carry as sound and loyal a heart to our Sovereign as the best, is a matter that rather deserves laughter, than belief.  
Thirdly, our Prophet had reason thus to oppose Pride, as he was the head of a family. Disobedience in children towards their parents, stubbornness in servants towards their masters, envy in brothers one towards another; name Pride, and you have named the mother and nurse of them all. The least thing that is spoken to a man of this humour, to range him into order, is as burning coals cast upon flax: it presently sets him on fire. He envies his superiors, and scorns to be commanded by them: his equals he disdains, & scorns to converse with them: and for his inferiors, if he could, he would trample them under feet. He commonly sets-going, in pursuing his vanities and pleasing his fancy, within less than a quarter, the allowance of a whole year: then must he with unjust dealing, either at home or abroad, to the dishonour of GOD, and the scandal of the house where he serves, make up that breach, and repair those ruins which his own proud humour hath caused. I will be bold to say it (though it be not commonly held so) that, all things considered, drunkenness or incontinency, or theft is more tolerable, and less troublesome in a family, than Pride.  
Fourthly and lastly, our Prophet had reason to oppose this vice, as he was a King: not only, because the pride of great ones must be maintained & born-out by exaction, extortion, and rapine from the lower Subject; but because it never leaves perching and pushing forward, till it set itself higher than is meet: whence issue devilish and damnable practices, in ridding such out of the way, as they think be likely to hinder them. If Mordecai will not bow to Haman, a whole nation must be rooted out for it. Finally, Only by pride man maketh contention, Pro▪ 13. 10: wheresoever strife goeth, there is pride, at least in one of the parties contending, if not on both sides. Sometimes, it stirreth up men, and imbouldeneth them to offer wrongs: sometimes, it imbittereth men, and maketh them wayward against the right: sometimes, it causeth the one to be careless of dealing according to equity, and the other to be impatient of bearing any injuries. The best use than for pride in a Commonwealth, is, To make work for the jailer or hangman, or at least to keep the Lawyer from idleness.  
The last thing which I will speak of in the handling of these words, is, that if David would not suffer pride in others, he would much less allow it in himself. Many gifts indeed he had, which were able to puff up flesh and blood; yet none of them all could move him. For beauty, he was of a lovely countenance, & comely visage; his strength such, as he was able to break a boaw of steel; his boldness and courage such, that he had the heart of a Lion: being but green in years, but a boy in a manner, he encountered and slew a Bear, a Lion, a Giant of six cubits and an hand-breath of height. He was taken from the sheepfolds, and from following the Ewes great with young, and from thence advanced to feed God's people in jacob, and his inheritance in Israel. He was so gracious before his coming to the Crown, that the soul of jonathan (Saul's eldest son) was knit to him: and the very women sang in their courses, Saul hath slain his thousand; and David, his ten thousand. He happily escaped the stratagems and persecutions of Saul, and his Counsellors, and men of war: he found courteous entertainment even among the enemies of God and his nation.  
After he came to the Crown, he obtained victories upon the jebusites, the Moabites, the Edomites, the Aramites, the Ammonites, and upon the Philistines, many a time and often. At home, he suddenly suppressed the rebellions of Ishbosheth, of Sheba, of Absolom, of Adoniah. His Wisdom was such, that by God's assistance he drove Achitophel (who was held in those days, for his wisdom, as the Oracle of God) to hang himself with his own hands: his favour with God such, that he was acknowledged to be a man after Gods own heart: so skilful was he in Music, that he was styled the sweet Singer of Israel; so expert in Poetry, that his Psalms were even then during his life publicly sung in the Congregation, as they are at this day; his prophetical spirit such, that he clearly foresaw and foretold more particulars of the Person, the Office & Kingdom of the Messias (of whom he was a type, and from whom Christ was to come) than any one of the Patriarches or Prophets that went before him; his Power such, that he had under his command many renowned and worthy Leaders, and to the full number of thirteen hundred thousand strong men that drew swords; his riches such, that he left his Son toward the building of the Temple an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, 
●spans●  and of brass and iron passing weight; a matter, were it not for the testimony of Scripture, beyond belief.  
Besides all this, his Patience was such, that he waited God's leisure many years betwixt the time of his anointing, and his investing in the Throne; his thorough & found Repentance such, that 'tis left as a pattern to all succeeding ages; his Charity such, that he prayed for his enemies; he caused the Amalechite to be put to death, that gave out he had slain Saul; and the servants of Ishbosheth, who indeed slew their master Saul's son; and for the death of Absalon he sorely lamented, though his own life and state were endangered by his practices: his Loyalty such, that he spared Saul twice, when he might have dispatched him and made a way to his own advancement. His Piety such, that he desired rather to be a doorkeeper in the house of God, than to live at ease in the King's Palace. And lastly, a Promise was made him, that his son Solomon should succeed him, and that his seed should be established in the throne.  
Were not these strong motives to puff up flesh and blood, to make himself conceited and proud of his own worth? Yet hear what himself professeth of his humility, the groundwork of all his other virtues and abilities: Psalm 131, I am not high minded, I have no proud looks, I do not exercise myself in great matters which are too high for me: but I refrain my soul and keep it low, like as a child that is weaned from his mother, yea my soul is even as a weaned child.  
But, what was it that kept him so low, notwithstanding his greatness, and so many rare excellencies and perfections wherewith he was endowed? The first no doubt was the grace of God: for, as he gives his grace to the humble, so it is his grace which makes them humble. The second, was those Crosses and afflictions, both outward & inward, wherewith God fro time to time had exercised him; From my youth upward, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind. The third, was the consideration both of his natural corruption, I was borne in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conctived me; as also of his actual transgressions, They are more than the hairs of my head, and mine heart hath failed me. The fourth, was the acknowledgement of his own frailty, He knoweth whereof we are made, he remembreth that we are but dust. The fifth, was the contemplation of God's greatness; the greatest among the sons of men, being less in comparison of him, than the silliest worm that crawls on the face of the earth, in comparison of them. The sixth, was the often exercising of himself with fasting, with prayer, with divine meditations and holy soliloquies, with sackcloth and ashes, with making his tears his drink, and minling his bread with weeping. The seaventh, was his studying day and night in God's law (according to the commandment given to the king, Deut. 17. 20, that his heart might not be lifted up above his brethren) and esteeming it above the honey and the honey comb, above gold an silver, yea much fined gold, and precious stone. The eighth and last, was a full assurance & free confession that God was privy to all his thoughts, that he would reward him according to his works; that he was both the Author, Maintainer, and Finisher of whatsoever good, either in his body, or in his soul, or in his estate: according to that memorable speech of Saint Paul, l. Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou, which thou didst not receive? and if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? Let our conclusion then still be, in regard of all the good we either have or do, Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini t●o da gloriam: Not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the praise.   

Verse 6. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the Land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.  
Our Prophet having, in the verse going before, made known in part, what they were whom he would not receive into his family and service; He comes in this verse to tell us of what condition they should be, whom he purposeth to admit, Mine eyes shall ●e to the faithful of the Land, etc.  
It is not good that man should be alone, says God himself, Gen. 2. 18. And, Woe be to him that is alone, saith the wise Solomon, Eccles. 4. 10. And, Solus, vel Deus, vel Daemon, saith Aristotle, He that desires to be alone, is either of a more base, or divine metal, than men commonly are made of. Upon this foundation of man's sociable nature, Kingdoms and Commonwealths are built, consisting of cities, and towns, and parishes; and they again of households and families; and they again of husband and wife, parents and children, Masters and Servants: of which last relation I am chiefly to speak at this time.  
Though the name and nature of a Servant were first brought into the world by the ungratiousnesse of Cham, Gen. 9 25: Yet is the impression of superiority and subjection so universally stamped upon the face of Nature, that it reacheth up to heaven; there being a greater light to rule the day, and a lesser light borrowed from and subordinate to the greater, to rule the night. If we ascend higher to the Angels, there are among them principality & domination: nay, more than so, it pierceth down to hell, where we read of Beelzebub a Prince of Devils. And experience hath farther observed, that even among unreasonable creatures, this form is kept; The birds being by a natural instinct subject to the Eagle, the beasts to the Lion, and the Bees marvailously obeying and reverencing their Master. But, this truth shines yet more clearly in man him himself, a little map or module as it were of the great world; his members being subject to the head, his body to the soul, his appetite to reason. And this principle is so deeply engraven upon the conscience of all, that the very barbarous nations, who retain any spark of civility, willingly subscribe unto it.  
Whether then we look upward to heaven, or downward to hell, or outward to the creatures, or inward to ourselves, we shall every where find characters imprinted of superiority and subjection, command and obedience, domination and service. To take it then as granted, to be a thing not lawful only, but commendable; nor commendable only, but as the case now stands, in a manner necessary; I will proceed to the unfolding of the words themselves. And first, of the former part of the verse, Mine eyes shall be to the faithful of the Land, that they may dwell with me.  
Faithfulness in holy Scripture is taken in divers senses: Sometimes for steadfastness and assurance of belief; Put forth thine hand, and put it into my side, and be not faithless, but faithful, john 20. 27: Sometimes for truth of speech; Fidelis est hic sermo, This is a true & faithful saying, 1. Tim. 4. 9: Sometimes for the profession of Christian religion; If any faithful man or faithful woman have widows, let them minister unto them, 1. Tim. 5. 16: Sometimes for certainty & constancy in performing what a man promiseth; Let us keep the profession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised, Heb. 10. 23: Sometimes for perseverance in the truth; Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee the crown of life, Rev. 2. 10. And, lastly, sometimes for a careful and conscionable discharge of ones duty in that place whereto he is called: thus Christ is said to have been a merciful and faithful high Priest, in things concerning God, Heb. 2. 17. And Paul testifies of Tychicus, that he was a faithful minister in the Lord, Ephes. 6. 21. And in this sense I take this word specially to be understood here in my Text: Mine eyes shall be to the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me.  
As the Art of navigation is most proper to a Mariner; courage, to a Soldier; arithmetic, to a Merchant; utterance, to an Orator: so is fidelity, to a Servant. We commend a ship, not so much for the fine shrowds and tackling, or for the gild or painting of it, as for the sailing; and a horse, not so much for the rich bosses, the trappings & comparisons, as for the running; and a sword, not so much for the handle or pummel hatched or enameled, or for a velvet scabbard embroidered with pearl, or set with precious stone; as for the temper of the blade and cutting: so we commend a servant, not so much for his strength, his nimbleness, his comeliness, his parentage, his bravery in clothes, or invention of fashions, his courtlike behaviour, or graceful speech, his pleasant wit or merry disposition, his subtle and crafty fetches, his knowledge of foreign States & languages; as for his fidelity: Any of the rest, nay all the rest without it, serving only to make a servant more disposed & more able too, as well for the plotting as the acting of villainy; whereas fidelity, having joined with it but some few of the rest in a mediocrity, makes him serviceable in a good degree.  
This is the commendation of Moses, Heb. 3. 5. Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant. And it is required in Stewards, that a man be found faithful, 1. Corinthians 4. 2. And our Saviour demands the question, 
Mat. 24● 45  Who then is a faithful servant and wi●e, whom his Master hath made Ruler over his house: They all thereby implying in my understanding, that faithfulness is one of the Cardinal properties, if not the principal, required in a good servant. Servus fidelis protectio fortis, munitum palatium, vivus thesaurus, said Nazianzen; A faithful servant is a strong protection, a fenced palace, a living treasure. And therefore the great Alexander, being enquired where his treasure was, pointed with his finger to his domestic servants.  
Now, faithfulness presupposeth knowledge and diligence, and shows itself either in deeds or words, in actions or in speeches: In actions first, when a servant doth that which tends not so much to the satisfying of his Masters vain humour and sensual appetite (which is sometimes wanton and lascivious, and sometimes again malicious and bloody) as the advancement and furtherance of his true and real good. And thus do I take Saint Paul to be understood, 1. Cor. 7. 23. Ye are bought with a price, be not the servants of men. And again, in the second of Titus, the 9 and 10. verses, Let Servants be subject to their Masters, and please them in all things, not answering again▪ neither pickers, but that they show all good faithfulness (all good faithfulness) adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. In both which places (as it seems) he would put a difference betwixt Christian servants and the bondslaves of the Heathen: their Masters having over them ius v●tae & necis, absolute power of life and death; and they being instrumenta animata, living Engines, not so much respecting the justness and equity of that which was commanded, as the will and pleasure of the Commander; such as Tigillinus and Petronius were to Ner●: But in these Cases better obey God than man. The Master's turn is to be served usquead arras, as far as honesty and piety will give leave; and no further.  
Again, fidelity shows itself in deeds, when the servant prefers his Master's good before his own; his Master's gain, his ease, his liberty, his safety before his own: but as Solomon asks the question, Pro. 20. 6, Many men will boast everyone of his goodness, but who can find a faithful man? So may we justly demand, Where shall a man find such a faithful servant? Surely he is a precious jewel, and therefore hard to be found: yet such a servant was our Prophet to his Master Saul, who sought him as a flea, or as one would hunt a Partridge in the mountains: yet when Abishai would have nailed him whiles he slept, with his spear to the earth, David would not suffer him; he spared his Master's life, though it were to the endangering of his own, when he might have secured his own by taking away his: and therefore, by God's blessing, himself afterwards found the like affected to him; Thou shalt not go forth, for thou art now worth ten thousand of us, 2. Sam. 18. And again, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, lest thou quench the light of Israel, 21. of the same book.  
Fidelity in words shows itself, partly in concealing of secrets and imperfections, and by laying the finger upon a man's mouth, and sealing up his lips in such a case, whereof Solomon speaks, Prov. 11. 13. He that goeth about as a tale-bearer, discovereth a secret: but he that is of a faithful heart, concealeth a matter. And for this special quality it was, that Augustus so highly esteemed and rewarded Mecanas; it being the property of a fool to be full of leaks, Plenus rim●rū hac atque illac diffluens, No sooner is any secret poured into his ear, but it drops out at his tongue; he is in pain till he be delivered of it, as a woman that is great with child, or a stomach that is full of wind. Yet two things have often drawn secrets even out of the bosom of those who have been otherwise held wise men; the enticements of women, and the strength of wine: Whereas on the other side it is found by experience, that a sober and chaste heart is the surest Casket to commit the jewel of a Secrecy unto.  
Besides, fidelity shows 〈◊〉 self in words (if occasion serve, and a man be called unto it) in giving such counsel as he conceives to be not most acceptable and passable, but most profitable and wholesome; Such hearty counsel as Solomon speaks of, Prov. 27. 9 As ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel: and in the multitude of such Counsellors there is health, 24. 6. And therefore one special thing which the Primitive Christians ever mentioned when they prayed for the Emperor (as Tertullian in his Apology tells us) was this, that God would send him Senatum sidelem, faithful Counsellors. And it seems our Prophet alluded hereunto; in as much as where our English reads it, To dwell with me; Arias Montanus, rendering word for word, translates it, Ad sedendum mecum: and Tremelius a jew borne, Vt consideant mecum, That they may sit with me, as it were at Counsel-table: and junius hath this note upon it, Bonos consiliarios, mihi adhibebo, I will procure me faithful Counsellors.  
Now as counsel is the life of action and authority; so is discreet liberty the life of counsel: which being once removed, for mine own part, I find no difference betwixt a friend and a flatterer, a parasite and a Counsellor; such as jonadab, Amnons' Counsellor & friend, to whom he no sooner disclosed his unnatural affection to his sister Tamar, but jonadab presently finds out, and shows him a trick how he might compass his desire, and satisfy his unlawful lust, 2. Sam. 13. Whereas had he been a faithful Counsellor indeed, he would have laboured by all means to have reclaimed him from his mischievous purpose, & have stopped such a villainy, as afterwards brought shame to Tamar, grief to David, death to Amnon.  
Somewhat better was joab: who though he wickedly gave way to David's cruelty, in making away Vriah, according to the tenor of the letter sent unto him, 2. Sam. 11; Yet afterwards he did him the office of a faithful Counsellor, when David retired himself unseasonably upon the death of Absalon: I swear by the Lord (saith he) except thou come out, there will not tarry one man with thee this night, 2. Sam. 19 7. And again, in the 24. of the same book, when the King in the pride of his heart would needs have his people to be numbered, The Lord thy God, saith joab, increase thy people an hundred fold more than they be, and that the eyes of my Lord the King may see it; but why doth my Lord the King desire this thing? Which howbeit at that time David harkened not unto, yet I●ab therein did his part: and I make no doubt, but the King himself afterward, when he felt the hand of God heavy upon him, wished he had followed that advice.  
The counsel of a grave and wise man, who speaks not out of passion or private respects, but out of a zeal of the public good, & of the person of him to whom he gives it, should be entertained and reverenced as the Oracle of God. And though it be true, that books written in former ages (which are justly called dead Counsellors) be for the most part more faithful, in regard that they speak without blushing or fear, to the present times: Yet as true it is, that Counsellors (which are or should be living books) if they be faithful, are undoubtedly the more useful, in regard they best know the disease, and should seek out the remedy of the times wherein they live.  
It is not always easy & gentle physic which is the best; neither is it always crossing counsel which is the worst: desperate is that man's case and past all cure, whose ear judgeth all to be harsh that is wholesome; and nothing profitable, but what is pleasing. Our Prophet was of another mind, when he spoke, out of deliberation, Psal. 141, Let the righteous smite me; for that is a benefit: and let him reprove me, and it shall be a precious oil that shall not break my head. And so was Solomon, Prov. 27. 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And it commonly proves true, that he who reproves not out of vain affectation of singularity, but with discretion and out of an honest heart, shall commonly find more favour, certainly more comfort at the last, than he who flattereth with his lips.  
But Counsel is best sought for at their hands, who either have no part at all in the cause whereof they instruct; or else are so far engaged, that themselves are to bear the greatest adventure in the success of their own counsels. Upon that counsel which Rehoboams' Counsellors gave him, are set the two marks whereby bad counsel is for ever best discerned; that it was green for the persons, and violent for the matter.  
Principis est virtus maxima, Nosse suos.  
It is a great part of princely virtue, to observe the humours of his subjects in general, but chiefly of his Counsellors; the greatest trust between man & man, being the trust of giving counsel. For, in other confidences, men commit the parts of their life, their lands, their goods, their child, their credit, some particular affair: but, to such as they make their Counsellors, they commit the Whole; by how much the more they are obliged to all faith and integrity. Neither need the wisest Princes think it any diminution to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency, to rely upon Counsel; since the ancient times do set forth in figure both the incorporation and inseparable conjunction of Counsel with Kings, in that they say, jupiter did marry Metis, which signifieth Counsel: so as sovereignty or authority is married to Counsel.  
The second condition which our Prophet proposeth, to be found in such as he meant to entertain in his service, is, Walking in a perfect way, or walking perfect in the way: it comes both to one; and the meaning of it is, The taking of a godly and religious course, as hath already been showed in opening the sense of the former part of the second verse, I will do wisely in the perfect way; so here, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. These two then must go together, Faithfulness and Godliness, Piety and Fidelity, civil Honesty & Religion: neither indeed can they be, as they should, either thrifty for themselves, or trusty to their masters, who be not first religious towards God. It was the memorable speech of Constantius, father to the great Constantine, to such as forsook their religion, that they might please and serve him.  
Godliness, then, is requisite in the servant, first in regard of himself, and then in regard of his Master: in regard of himself, because by that means he is sure of a reward, either from his master, or from God, or from both. The general promise they have, 1. Tim. 4. 8, Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life present, and of that that is to come. But, a more special one they have directed to themselves in particular, in Ephes. 6. 8, Know ye, that is, ye servants (for, unto them he begins to address his speech in the fifth verse) Know ye, that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same he shall receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And yet more expressly in Colos. 3. 23. 24, Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing, that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for, ye serve the Lord Christ.  
And many times it falls out, that those, who being faithful and godly, receive the least reward at their master's hands, receive the greater from God, and that even in this world by his gracious blessing. This, jacob found: he was so religious towards God, that though his Master were an Idolater, he still kept himself free from it; and yet so faithful was he to his Master, that, for the space of twenty years, he was in his service consumed with heat in the day, and frost in the night; and if any of the flocks were either stolen, or torn by beasts, he made it good himself, he set it not on his Master's account. Yet for all this, could not his Master afford him a good look, much less a good word: he changed his wages ten times, sought to eat him up, & to raven all he could get from him. This was the reward he had from his Master for his faithful service. But now God so blessed him for his sincerity in religion, that the very Presents he sent his brother Esau were able to make a rich man, Gen. 32. And of himself he professeth in the same chapter, verse 10, With my staff came I over this jordan, and now have I gotten two bands.  
In regard of men, it fared worse with joseph: though God prospered his Master's house for his sake, neither would he hearken to the impudent and importunate su●e of his mistress; yet his recompense was disgrace and imprisonment, they put his feet in the stocks, and the iron entered into his soul. But God, in stead of the stocks, set him in the seat of justice; and, in stead of his fetters, put a chain of gold about his neck. I will conclude this point with the exhortation of St. Peter, Servants, be subject to your Masters with all fear; not only to the good and courteous, but also to the froward: for, this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience towards GOD endure grief, suffering wrongfully, 1. Pet. 2. 18.  
Secondly, as godliness is requisite in a servant, in regard of himself; so is it in regard of his Master. First, because, if he fear his Master and not God, all that he doth will be but eye-service; he will certainly intend his Masters good no further, than he sees it may sort with his own: whereas if God & the fear of him be before his eyes, he is the same man when his Master is absent, as if he were present; he desires and endeavours his best advantage, as much though he were a thousand mile off, as if he stood by and looked on. If Gehezi had thought that his Master had been so far endued with a prophetical spirit, that he could have told him what he did in so great a distance from him, he would never have taken such pains to run after the Syrian Captain for a bribe, to the disgrace of his Master, and the undooing of himself. And if judas had believed our Saviour to have been God, and consequently that he had known the thoughts of his heart, undoubtedly he would never have hatched against him such a foul treason within his breast. It was nothing that made Achitophel to side as a Rebel with Absalon, and to plot against his Master David, and Ziba against Mephibosheth; but worldly respects, and want of true religion.  
Besides, as ungodliness in the servant cannot but put the Master in continual fear, both of his estate and person: so it serves to infect as well the children of the house, as his fellow-servants; whereas on the other side, the godliness of one, being countenanced and encouraged therein, serves to shame the lewder sort, and to draw-on the well-disposed. Thus Daniel, being admitted into the King of Babylon's Court, was an instrument for the reforming and converting even of the King Nebuchadnezar himself. And joseph was admitted into the King of Egypt's Court, that he might inform his Princes, and teach his Senators wisdom, Psal. 125. 22. In the second of Kings and the fifth, we read of a poor silly maid, but a Jewess by Nation (the only people of God at that time) who being taken captive by the Aramites, and serving Naamans' wife, told her Mistress, of the Prophet Elisha in Samaria; and by that means gave occasion to her Lord of going thither, and cleansing himself from the leprosy both of his body, and his soul.  
Lastly, a godly and religious servant will ever be praying unto God, to send a blessing on that work which he is set about; as Abraham's servant did, Gen. 24; and so God prospered his journey, and the business he was entrusted with accordingly. All which considered, great reason had our Prophet to say, and to double it, to promise and to vow it, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me: He, he.  
Now, because the word here used, to Serve, in the Original, signifies a free and liberal kind of service; it may well be thought that our Prophet intended not only the admitting of faithful and godly servants into his family, but the advancing of such to the highest offices, & the placing of them in the chiefest room of government under him. And surely this consideration and promise was no less (nay, more) necessary than the former, in regard that the good which from hence might arise is more public. They that be of high calling (if they be good, and desire their goodness may spread abroad and reach unto others) for this purpose may not unwily be likened to great Cisterns or ponds full of clear and wholesome water, that might be beneficial to many, if there were sound and sweet pipes to convey it: whereas on the other side, it yieldeth no benefit at all, if the pipes be stopped; nay proves hurtful, if they be poisoned and corrupted. Whereof it cometh to pass, that even when there be good Princes, yet things do still continue out of frame: as we see in the days of josiah, a most excellent and careful King, who feared God betimes, & twice in his days reform religion; his remembrance is as the perfume made by the Art of the Apothecary, and as music at a banquet of wine; there was no King before him, either after him, that like josiah turned to God with all his heart, as he did: yet were there in his days, even in the time of his reign, horrible abominations, atheism and contempt of God, pride in apparel, oppression and cruelty, yea much damnable Idolatry, notwithstanding the good King by his laws had taken as good order against these as possibly he could. The cause of all was, that such as were under him in the Commonwealth, and in the Church, did not that which he willed, and belonged to their place; According to that complaint of Zophonie, That the Princes were as roaring Lions, the judges as Wolves in the Evening, which leave not the bones till the morrow; the Prophets were light and wicked persons, and the Priests such as polluted the Sanctuary, and had wrested the law of God to serve their own turn: And so what marvel though in a rare King's days iniquity overflowed and abounded.  
Esay in like manner prophesied under good Kings, Vzziah and jotham, and Hezekiah: yet he justly and sorely complains, how far all things were even then out of order, their silver was become dross, and their wine mixed with water, Cap. 1. 22; and he adds the reason hereof in the verse following, because their Princes, that is, their chief Officers under the the King, were rebellious and companions of thiefs, They loved gifts and followed after rewards, they judged not the fatherless, neither did the widow's cause come before them. The people themselves do so sensibly see and feel this, that they rejoice when the righteous be in authority, Prov. 29. 2; whereas clean chose, they sigh and mourn when the wicked are set up, and bear rule; as it follows in the same place. Thus when Mordecai came out from the King in royal apparel, of blue & white, and with a great Crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen & purple, the whole city of Susan rejoiced and was glad, Ester 8. 15. The counsel therefore of jethro (Exo. 18. 21.) was very good, and not without just cause approved of Moses, when he gave advice, that not only his higher Officers, Rulers over thousands and hundreds, but the inferiors too, over fifties and ten, should be men of courage, fearing God, dealing truly and hating covetousness. Their fearing of God was a means for them in good causes to put on courage; and their hating of covetousness to deal truly, which in case they did not, the Commonwealth should not only suffer, but Moses should be sure to hear of it. For though to private men it be sufficient, if them-selves do no wrong; yet a Prince must provide that none do it about him or under him; the neglect hereof being the chief imputation that was laid to Galba's charge, and tumbled him out of the Empire, as being unworthy of government, Omnium consensu dignus imperio, nisi imperasset.  
Hitherto of the Conditions which our Prophet requires in those whom he proposed to admit and entertain as Servants about him, as Counsellors to him, as Officers under him: Now for himself, he purposes his eyes should be upon them; and that, as I take it, first, for Choice, and secondly for Use. There is an eye of Search, and an eye of Favour: the one is for the seeking and finding them out, that they may serve; the other for the countenancing of their persons, and rewarding of their service. First then, for the eye of search and choice; He would not take them up at haphazard, nor upon the bare report and commendation of others, he would not presently entertain them who most importunately sued or made the greatest friends, or largest offers; these being for the most part sure signs of little desert, and less conscience in the parties themselves, in discharging the duties of those places they sue for. He that buyeth is thereby shrewdly provoked, nay, is after a sort openly dispensed withal to sell again. If he have to do with the treasure, he will rob and spoil; if with justice, he will take bribes; if with Church affairs, with matter of war, or Civil government, it may be he will go farther: Such will make small account to sell a State, or to deliver up a Kingdom. Now the King, our Prophet speaketh of, will for avoiding these mischiefs, rather become a suitor himself to sufficient and able men, for the accepting and undergoing of such charges as he knew them fit for: neither would he advance any to the highest rooms of dignity, but such as himself by experience had found to be conscionable and faithful in lower places; and if he could not find such near him, he would seek them farther off; his eyes should run through the Land from the one end to the other, for the finding of them out. Oculi mei ad ●ideles terrae, Mine eyes shall be to the faithful of the Land.  
Now, as his eyes were to them for choice and entertainment: so were they upon them for encouragement & reward. Lord, saith he, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle, or who shall rest upon thy holy hill? Among other properties this is one, He that maketh much of them that fear the Lord, Psal. 15. 4. And therefore in the very next Psalm vers. 3, he protests that all his delight was upon the Saints that are on the earth, and upon such as excel in virtue. And again, in the 119. 36, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and keep thy precepts: And in special of servants, of Kings and Princes, says Solomon, in the 14. of Proverbs, at the last verse, The pleasure of a King is in a wise servant, but his wrath shall be toward him that is lewd.  
Neither is it sufficient to make much of them by looks and countenance, and to feed with good words and fair promises: but to speak and do really for them, as occasion shall serve & they deserve. Let thy soul love a good servant, and defraud him not of his liberty, neither leave him a poor man, Ecclus. 7. 21. And the reason is given in the 33. of the same book, vers. 29. If thou have a faithful servant, entreat him as thy brother, for thou hast need of him as of thyself. Such a Master it seems Naaman was to his servants: which made them call him father; Father, if the Prophet had commanded thee a great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? Such was that Centurion in the Gospel, 
Compare Mat. 8, with Luke 7.  who when his servant was sick, entreated our Saviour to come to him and heal him, calling him by the same name which signifies a son; thereby showing that good servants should be as sons to their Masters, in dutiful obedience; and good Masters again, as kind fathers in loving affection to their servants, as remembering that themselves have a father in heaven, to whom they must one day render an account of all their actions, and with him there is no respect of persons.   

Verse 7. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.  
Our Prophet in the fifth verse had promised to banish Slander and Pride: here he promiseth to take the like order with Deceit and Lying; two vices contrary to those two virtues which before he had vowed to entertain; Deceit being opposite to Faithfulness, and Lying to Godliness. These two vices are so common and general, and yet withal so close and subtle, that he could not promise utterly to abolish and extinguish them; but to deal with them as Physicians do with pestilent diseases, to expel them from the vital parts: upon discovery, they should not lodge in the Court, nor remain in the Presence. He could not always prevent their entrance and abode there for a while; deceitful men being as cunning to cover, as to work their deceit: yet would he as narrowly as he could seek them out; and, when he had found them, cast them out too.  
Indeed the saying is, Turpius eijcitur, quam non admittitur: It is more shameful to cast out a servant, than not to admit him: But it is as true, Tutius eijcitur, like a raw morsel that sitteth ill in the stomach, he is more safely cast out than retained: or, if he be a Retainer, non habitabit, he shall not be in ordinary; or, if he be, he shall not be of such as lie under my roof; or, if he do, non habitabit in interiori domus meae, saith Arias Montanus, he shall have no place in my privy-chamber, or bedchamber.  
And for the Liar, he may chance to come into my sight, but non prosperabitur, saith Musculus, he shall not build his nest there: non firmabitur, saith Arias Montanus, he shall take no rooting there; non stabilietur, saith junius, he shall not set up his rest there.  
It was great Wisdom in our Prophet that he would not have his house a mingle-mangle, to consist pell-mell of divers dispositions, as Hannibal's army did of several nations: he would not have his family like a motley cloth, or a meddly colour; some of his servants being of one Die, and some of another: but he would have all to go in one Livery, uniform and suitable; that so, all agreeing and according together, they might all walk, and look, and draw one way in the service of God & their Master. For, had he chosen some religious, and others profane or idolatrous, some honest and sober, others swaggerers and unthrifts, some civil & peaceable, others cutthroats and rakehell's; lastly, some faithful and godly, as in the verse next going before; and some deceitful and lying, as in this verse; like fire and water, they would never have given over striving to expel and chase away, or to supplant and undermine one another: so that the Master, in stead of an orderly and comfortable service, should have found nothing but controversy and complaint, faction and brawl: for, What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? what communion hath light with darkness? what concord hath Christ with Beliall? what agreement hath the temple of God with Idols? 2. Cor. 6. It was indeed Machiavels' rule, Si vis regnare, divide; If thou wilt rule in safety, sow discord, and set division betwixt those that are under thee: but this is a point of the devil's policy, he never learned it in the school of Christ; and, for the most part, the practice of it proves most dangerous to the Authors of it.  
Hitherto in the general for so much as concerns both these vices taken jointly together; now to the particulars, as they lie in order here in my text: and first of working deceit, and then of telling lies. Deceit is commonly by the Latines expressed by one of these three words; Astutia, Dolus, or Fraus: between which, the Schoolmen put this difference, Prudentia directè opponitur astutia, To true Wisdom craft or wiliness is directly opposed: executio autem astutiae est propriè per dolum in verbis, perfraudem fraudem in factis: but the execution of craft is properly by cozenage in words, and by guile in deeds. Wec are afterwards to speak of cozenage in words. The thing then here intended, as I think, is guile in deeds: which howbeit it be nowadays almost generally esteemed the essential point of a Lawyer, the proper passion of a Merchant, and the compliment of an absolute Courtier; yet our Prophet held it so odious, as in two several places he joins it in the same verse with bloodthirstiness: The Lord will abhor the bloodthirsty and deceitful man, Psal. 5. 6. Upon which words, saith Aquinas, Verbo abominand: denotatur odium irreconciliabile; By the word, Abhor, is implied an irreconcilable and implacable hatred: and indeed so it seems, in as much as our Prophet tells us again, Psal. 55. and the last verse, The bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.  
Our Saviour, when he would set out Herod in his colours, calls him a fox; Goetell that fox, Luke 13. 32: and when he would commend Nathanael, he calls him an Israelite, in whom was no guile, john 1. 47. The Devil is in holy Scripture named a Serpent, not only because he took that shape upon him when he deceived our first parents in Paradise, but because the Serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, Gen. 3. 1. As a Serpent, he is full of windings and turnings, which are called his depths, Rev. 2. 24, Neither have known the depths of satan, that is, his deep fetches: whereupon S. Paul, having reproved Elymas the Sorcerer, that he was full of all subtlety and mischief; he presently adds, Thou child of the devil, and enemy of all righteousness, Acts 13. 10. Now, as the Devil appeared in the shape of a Serpent, which is of all beasts the most subtle and crafty; so did the H. Ghost in the shape of a Dove, which is of all birds the most simple and innocent: and john the Baptist terms our Saviour a Lamb, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, john 1. 29. And again the next day, as he saw him walking by, Behold the Lamb, or, as the Original and our last Translation reads it, that Lamb of God: not only because he was so prefigured in the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, and foretold by the Prophets, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth, Esay 53. 7; but also because he had the properties of a Lamb, and those specially of a native innocency and godly simplicity; according to that of the same Evangelicall Prophet, cited by S. Peter, 1. 2. 22, He did no sin, neither was there any guile found in his mouth.  
There is a blockish simplicity, or rather stupidity, arising out of a natural defect; When a man deceives not another, because he wants wit to do it: and this is no more praiseworthy, than continency in one that is an Eunuch by nature, or sobriety in him that hath no means to exceed. And there is a godly simplicity, when a man hath wit sufficient; yet so, as, being corrected and qualified by grace, he restrains it from such mischievous and guileful plots; as his natural corruption would draw him unto. And this indeed is that simplicity, and none but this, which is commended in Scripture, and accepted of God. Posse & nolle, nobile.  
And the vice contrary to this, is that which the Civilians call dolus malus, by them opposed to bona fides, and defined to be Machinatio quaedam alterius decipiendi causa, cum aliud agitur, & aliud simulatur, A device for the deceiving of a man, where one thing is done, and another is dissembled. Whereunto agrees that of Cicero, in the first book of his Offices, where he approves the reply of Aquilius his familiar friend: who being demanded, Quid esset dolus, what deceit was; he answers, Vbialiud est actum, & aliud simulatum, where one thing is practised, and another pretended: And of Augustine in his seaventh Tract upon john, expounding those words of Christ, touching Nathanael, Behold an Israelite, in whom is no guile: Tum dolus est, ●aith he, cum aliud agitur, & aliud fingitur; when one thing appears in the fact, and another thing is hid in the heart. Yet even this, if it be for the good of some, and the hurt and hindrance of none, I dare not pronounce to be simply unlawful. Such a deceit is that which Nurses use for the stilling of their children; or Physicians, for the healing of their Patients. Such did our Prophet himself use, when for the saving of his life he feigned himself mad, among the Philistines, 1. Sam. 21. 13. And hitherto are those words of S. Paul by some referred, For as much as I was crafty, I took you by guile, 2. Cor. 12. 16.  
Nay, though it tend to the outward hindrance and hurt of some, I cannot always utterly condemn it. It was by a cunning sleight, that the Israelites rob the Egyptians, that Ehud slew Eglon, and jehu Baal's priests: yet they being warranted by God's counsel, and excited by his Spirit, what therein they did was in right justifiable. Nay, more than so: in a just and honourable war, where it is lawful to kill, it is not unlawful by stratagems to deceive.  
Dolus an virtus quis in host requirit!  
It was the speech indeed of a Heathen, yet approved by St. Hierome in his Exposition upon Ezek. 17; but with this caution, that it be practised without the violating of an oath, the breach of promise, or the making of a lie.  
W●ich notwithstanding, the world too well knoweth, and with grief feeleth it to be both the doctrine and the practice of the Church of Rome, that Faith plighted to Heretics is not to be held. Which position while she holds, I see not how those whom she accounts Heretics can either with safety and security, or without just fear and manifest danger, any way rely upon the contracts made with her or her adherents. Their moral or civil honesty may chance ty them to the performance of such oaths: but (I am sure) their religion, the strongest bond of conscience, doth not. Nay, if it be for the good of their Church, it dispenseth with the breach, and (which is more) commands them to break it. It is written by an Italian, no stranger to the Court of Rome, that the Proverb is, Mercatorum est, non regum, stare iuramentis, It is for Merchaunts, not Kings, to stand to their oaths: but from such Merchants of men's souls, Libera nos Domine, Good Lord deliver us.  
Now, the inconveniences and mischiefs which accompany this deceitfulness, specially in a servant, are these: First, himself seldom or never thrives by it; he enjoys not the benefit of that which he gets by falsehood, according to that of Solomon, Proverb. 12. 27. The deceitful man roasteth not that which he took in hun●ing: and of our Prophet, Psal. 58. 9 Or ever their pots be made hot with thorns, so shall indignation vex them as a thing that is raw. It shall far with them as with hunters, who many times when they take a prey, yet themselves taste not of it; or as with meat, which, the thorns being consumed under the pot, is left unsodden: and so all their plots and enterprises become as the untimely fruit of a woman, which never sees the sun. And if they come not to public shame amongst men, which for the most part they do (the vizard of their hypocrisy being plucked off) yet God in his due time will not forget them. According to that of the Apostle, 1. Thes. 4. 6, Let no man oppress or defraud his brother, for God is the avenger of all such things. If a man be so mighty to oppress, that the Magistrate will not lay hold on him, or so cunning to defraud that the law cannot take hold of him, then where man and his law cease, there God and his law begin; though they dazzle the eyes of men, yet the eye of God they cannot; and the less they feel at the hands of men, the heavier shall they feel the hand of God, either in their states, or in their bodies, or in their souls, or in their posterity, or in all. Such a one may flourish for a while, like a green Bay tree; but, I went by, and lo he was gone; I sought him, but his place could no where bee found. Keep innocence then and take heed to the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last, Psal. 37. It is the surest, and fairest, and likeliest way to bring him to riches and honour, in as much as all men desire to deal with him whom they repute honest, though themselves be not such: but the undoubted way it is to bring him Peace, peace with himself, and peace with his God; without which, his riches and honour will do him little good: Nay, they will in the end prove his bane and confusion.  
Another mischief, that arises from the deceitfulness of a Servant, is to his Master (specially if he be a great personage, and of eminent note) either by bringing-in unjust accounts, or by betraying him to his enemies; who sometimes prefer a servant, that they may thereby work villainy and get intelligence of secrets; and so it may come to pass, that under a velvet or silk or scarlet cloak, a jesuit or Priest may be entertained: or lastly, in deceiving others, by using his Master's name, though without his knowledge or consent, yet he cannot but by that means breed in men's minds an ill conceit, & in their tongues an i'll report of his Master. It very much then imports great men & Princes, not only to observe narrowly such servants as they suspect, but for examples sake to punish them severely being detected. Such were some of them about the good Emperor Aurelian, who by Monopolies and impositions, by projects and perquisites enenriched themselves, to the impoverishing of the estate, and the dishonouring of their Master: Nay, of him they made a Monopoly too; who, being let to know no more than what they pleased to inform him, was of them by that means even bought and sold. But Alexander Severus took another course with them: who understanding that Vercovius had greatly abused his favour, taking much money of divers to prefer their suits, and doing nothing for them, he caused him to be hanged up in a chimney as some write, or as others, to be tied in public to a stake, and there to be stifled with smoke; an Herald proclaiming to the people, Fumum vendidit, & fumo pereat, Smoak he sold, and with smoke let him perish. And, if it be observed, the greatest Merchants of smoke have ever been found to be the greatest slaterers of their Masters, Having men's persons in admiration because of advantage, jude 16. I have dwelled somewhat the longer upon this point, because the Court is generally held the Shop, the Forge, nay, the School and Theatre of this vice: not without good cause than doth our Prophet vow, it shall not dwell with him.  
As in the first place he excludeth working of deceit; So doth he in the second, telling of lies: He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.  
Servum nolle mentiri nova religio est,  
Saith one of the ancient Comikes;  
And another, 
Is cliens frugi habetur, qui neque leges,  
neque aequum bonum unquam colit.   
But this is heathenish divinity: or as it may well be thought, they rather spoke what men commonly did, than what they should do. Once, our Prophet I am sure was of another mind: though he were an old servant, though never so useful and profitable to him, though never so near and dear, as his right hand, or his right eye; yet if he fell to lying, away he must; he would would be so far from showing him any favour, that he should not so much as enjoy the sight of his countenance.  
A wonder it is to consider that the imputation of a lie should be so odious, and yet the practice so frequent among men (specially those who stand most upon their reputation) the name so hateful, and the use so common: that men should be so tender, and sensible of the giving of the lie, as to think it presently worthy the stab or the challenge; and yet to be so careless and unconscionable in the making of it: a strange kind of vanity, I say it is, and a marvelous repugnancy and contradiction in the nature of man, to be so hot in the pursuit of the one, and so cold in the other. Wherefore either seem to be as thou art, or be as thou wouldst seem: either have a care and conscience that thou make not a lie, or be content that a man call a Spade a Spade, a Liar a Liar.  
This vice of all other is so universally spread over the face of the world, not only among servants, but all sorts of men, that what our Prophet spoke in his haste, I said in mine haste, all men are Liars, Psalms 106. 10, that the Apostle spoke advisedly, Rom. 3. 4, Let God be true, and every man a liar. But we must know it is one thing to lie, and another to make a trade or custom of lying: one thing to slip into it unawares; another, deliberately to forge and conceive it, and which is worse to defend it, and stand in it being done. The one may proceed from the common frailty incident to mankind; yet not without some striving against it, and repentance for it, in such as are sanctified by God's spirit: but the later is only proper to the unbelieving and unregenerate. Therefore says our Prophet, not Loquens mendacium, in the singular number; but mendacia, in the plural.  
Now in the handling of this point, we may first consider the nature, and divers kinds of a Lie. Secondly, the greatness of the offence, how slightly soever we esteem of it. And lastly, the punishment always due unto it, & many times inflicted upon it.  
A Lie (to speak properly) is the speaking of an untruth with an intent to deceive. For the clearer unfolding of which definition, we are to call to mind a fourfold truth mentioned in holy Scripture: of judgement, of Affection, of Action, of Speech. The truth of judgement is opposed to Error, of Affection to Hypocrisy, of Action to Dissimulation, and of Speech to Lies or Falshood. If a man speak that which is false without an intent to deceive, supposing it to be a truth, it is a material lie. If he speak a truth with an intent to deceive, supposing he spoke a falsehood, it is a formal lie: But if he speak a falsehood, knowing it to be a falsehood, with an intent to deceive, this is a full, a flat lie; it hath the whole essence, the matter & the form, the soul and the body of a lie.  
The material lie is liable to the censure of men, but excusable before God, at lest à tanto, though not à toto; in as much as it proceeds out of ignorance, the tongue agreeing with the understanding, but the understanding disagreeing from the thing. The formal lie is punishable by God, though acquitted by men; in as much as the understanding disagrees from the speech, though the speech agree with the thing: but the full lie including both the matter and the form, deserves punishment both from God and men; in as much as in it both the understanding disagrees from the speech, and the speech from the thing. Which ground being laid, I see not how the most cunning Sophisters in the world can free their equivocations, and mental reservations, at leastwise from the formality of a lie: which is indeed the life of it, if there may be life in such a dead work. For, to grant that the thing which they speak is true, yet they cannot deny but they speak it with an intent to deceive: and then Linguam ream facit mens rea, It is a guilty mind that makes a guilty tongue; according to that of Augustine, Ex animi sui sententia non ex rerum ipsarum veritate aut falsitate mentiens aut non mentiens iudicandus est: A Liar is to be judged not so much by the truth and falsehood of things, as by the purpose and intent of his mind.  
It matters not then, whether my lie be iocosum only for sport and merriment; or officiosum, for the pretended good of some, without the hurt of any; or malitiosum, out of a mischievous design: if it be an untruth uttered with an intent to deceive, it comes all to one for the unlawfulness of it; howbeit, the one be sinful in a higher degree, more devilish and damnable than the other: and being once unlawful in itself, as being a direct breach of the law, none other respect but only the dispensative power of the Lawgiver himself can possibly make it lawful. When Thespis, the first stage-player, was asked if he were not ashamed to utter so many untruths in so worthy an audience; he answered, that he did it in sport: but wise Solon replied, if we approve and commend this sport, we shall find it in earnest, in our contracts & affairs. And even so indeed by just judgement it befalls a man, who, using to lie in sport, gets an habit of lying in earnest; and with his jesting lies raiseth such a suspicion of him, that, be he in never so good earnest, he cannot be believed. And for officious lies, since we cannot make a lie for God cause, as job testifies, 13. 9; much less may we lie for the behoof of ourselves or other men. Use not then to make any manner of lie: for, the custom thereof is not good, Ecclus. 7. 13. No good and honest means are to be neglected, which tend to the refreshing and cheering of their spirits who bear the burden of the State: yet the Prophet Hosea 7. 3, reproves those that make the king glad with their wickedness, and the Princes with their lies: neither is it any way warrantable to do evil, that good may come thereof, Rom. 3. 8. As righteousness then and peace, so truth and charity are inseparable companions. And therefore the Apostle, 1. Cor. 13, puts down this among other marks of charity, that it rejoiceth in the truth, verse 6.  
And for those examples registered in holy Scripture of the Midwives to save the male-infants of the Hebrews, of Rahab to save the spies, of Mich●l and jonathan to save David from Saul's fury, and the like of that kind, either commended or not discommended; I answer, that we must distinguish betwixt the deeds of the faithful, and their manner of doing them. Their facts in saving David, the children, the spies, were commendable, and argued the fear of God and love of his children: but the manner of putting them in execution is neither approved in holy Scripture, nor was in itself justifiable, nor is to be imitated of us; it being no more lawful to save a man's life by a lie, than by theft: both which, without repentance, in themselves deserve death eternal. Et quomodo non perversissimè dicitur (saith S. Augustine) ut alter corporaliter vivat, debere alterum spiritualiter mori? How can it be but a perverse assertion, to say, That one should incur the death of the soul, to free another from that of the body? And not far off in another place, Quanto fortius, quanto excellentius dices, Nec prodam, nec mentiar, ut Firmus Episcopus Tagastensis? How much more courage and constancy doth it show, for a man to say, I will neither betray the truth, nor my friend; as did Firmus Bishop of Tagastum, Firmus nomine, firmior autem re; Firm in name, but more firm indeed.  
The truth hereof will the better appear, if we consider the greatness of the offence, the second thing which I proposed: in as much as it is first directly against God himself; secondly, against the Scriptures, the Oracles of GOD; thirdly, against nature, the workmanship of God; and fourthly, against civil society, the ordinance of God. Against God it is both essentially and personally taken. Against God the Father; This is eternal life, that they know thee to be the only true God, john 17. 3: Against God the Son; I am the way, the truth, and the life, john 14. 6: Against God the holy Ghost; When he is comen, who is the Spirit of truth, he will lead you into all truth, john 16. 13. And as God is the Father of truth; so is the Devil the father of Lies: when he speaketh a Lie, than he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father thereof, joh. 8. 44. No marvel then, that one of those seven things which the Lord hates, and his soul abhors, is a lying tongue, Pro. 6. 17.  
Secondly, it is against the Scriptures, the Oracles of God. And therefore are they truly called Verbum veritatis, the word of truth, Eph. 1. 13; not only because they were indicted by the Author of all truth, or because they contain so much supernatural truth as is requisite for our salvation, but withal because they excite us to the embracing & practising of truth. Cast off lying, and speak every man truth unto his neighbour, Ephes. 4. 25. Lie not one to another, Col. 3. 9 Lord, who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle, saith our Prophet? Even he that speaketh the truth from his heart, Psal. 15.  
Thirdly, it is against nature, the workmanship of God. It is the privilege of Mankind above all Creatures, that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a creature capable both of reason and speech: and as reason was ordained to be the guide and director of our speech; so was our speech, to be the expounder and interpreter of reason. And therefore the Grammarians make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifieth speech, to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which gives light to the notions of the understanding. If, then, we speak one thing and think another, if we express one thing with our lips, and conceive another thing in our hearts, it is against the end for which God created speech.  
Fourthly and lastly, it is against Civil society, the ordinance of God; a main part whereof consisting in Conference, in Consultation, in Contracts, Fractavel leviter imminuta authoritate veritatis, omnia dubia remanebunt, saith Saint Augustine; The credit and sovereignty of truth, being never so little cracked, or the practice of lying never so little countenanced, a man can build upon nothing, but all things will be full of doubt and distrust. Rightly then saith the same good Father, Nunquam errare tutius existimo, quam cum in amore nimio veritatis & reiectione nimia falsitatis erratur: A man cannot lightly err more safely, then in too much love of truth, & hatred of lies. Truth is a salt which serveth for the seasoning of every action, and maketh it favorie both to God and man: and in the 6. to the Ephes. it is compared to a girdle, or a Soldier's belt, whereby they knit together and close unto their middle the upper and lower pieces of their armour. And these belts, as they were strong, so were they set with studs, being fair & large. There is then a double use of them: one, to keep the several pieces of armour fast and close together, & to hold the loins of a man firm & steady, that he may be able to stand the surer, and hold out the longer; the other, to cover the joints of the armour, that they might not be seen. The first use was for strength, the second for ornament: and thus truth is both an ornament to a Christian soldier, and also an excellent means for strength to uphold and assure him in the day of trial. Therefore wisely doth Solomon advise us, To buy the truth, but in no case to sell it, Pro. 23. 23.  
The last thing which I promised, is the punishment: and that surely cannot but much aggravate the grievousness of the sin. It is both the punishment of other sins, and other sins the punishment of it. When God would punish Ahab for his wickedness, presently the Devil offers himself for the execution of the service; I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets, 1. King. 22. And those that would not believe and love the truth, he punisheth with strong delusions that they should believe lies, 2. Thess. 2. And as it is the punishment of other sins, so did he punish it with other sins in those Philosophers of the Gentiles, who because they turned the truth of God into a lie, therefore God gave them up unto vile affections, Rom. 1. 25. And the rule is general, The mouth that lieth slayeth the soul, Wis. 1. 11. Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies, Psal. 5. 6. And Revel. 22. 15, Without shall be dogs▪ and enchanters, and whoremongers, and murderers, and Idolaters, and whosoever loveth or maketh lies. And if God thus shut them out of his presence; not without cause doth our Prophet promise, They shall not tarry in his sight. It is the prayer of Solomon, Prov. 30. Remove from me vanity and lies; and his position in the 29. of the same book, ve●s. 12, Of a Prince that hearkeneth to lies, all his servants are wicked. And if we are to shun the practice of lies, much more the doctrine of lies, Teaching lies through hypocrisy, 1. Tim. 4. 2. One effect whereof is the confident relation of their lying miracles, and that Golden Legend compiled by a leaden brain, and published by a brazen forehead. I will conclude with Saint Augustine's conclusion of his two Treatises de mendacio ad Consentium, Aut cavenda sunt mendacia recte agendo, aut confitenda sunt poenitendo; non autem, cum abundent infeliciter vivendo, augenda sunt & docendo. Lies are either to be shunned by speaking truth, or to be confessed and bewailed with sorrow; or if they abound by ill living, they are not to be multiplied by teaching them as lawful.   

Verse 8. I will early destroy all the wicked of the Land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.  
Our Prophet, having in the former verses of this Psalm, vowed the reformation of his own Person, of his household Servants, of his Counsellors & inferior Magistrates; here in this last verse he vows in general the reformation both of the Church and of the Common-weak, of the Civil and Ecclesiastical State. In the handling of which words, I will follow the method proposed in the Text. The first word is, In matutinis, as Arias Montanus; or Singulis matutinis, as Tremelius renders it: In the mornings, or morning by morning▪ Every morning: wherein he notably expresseth his diligence and dispatch, in that it should be his morning's work; and then his Constancy and perseverance, in that it should be his work every morning, The second thing is, the work it sel●●▪ I will destroy, I will cut off; his meaning is, when no other remedy will serve the turn. The third is the Object, the persons upon whom this severe justice is to be done; not petty offenders, much less the innocent, but notorious malefactors: The wicked of the Land, wicked doers. The fourth is, the unpartiality of his proceeding without respect of persons, All the wicked of the Land, all wicked doers; twice repeated, that we might take notice of it. As he would cut off none but notorious malefactors, so would he as near as he could cut them all off: Neither his heart nor his eye should pity, nor his hand spare any of them. The fifth and last is, the End he proposeth to himself of this work; the purging of the City of the Lord, by which is meant Jerusalem: first, for Example to the whole Realm, it being the Metropolis and head City of the kingdom; as also and principally, by reason the service of God and the exercise of religion was in a special manner by divine ordinance tied unto it. First then of the first, In matutinis: wherein his diligence in the careful performing of this work comes first to be observed.  
The saying is common, and in some cases no less just, Odi nimium diligen●es: but where the business is weighty, and the failing dangerous, a man can hardly be too, diligent. The life of man is precious, and the preservation of the State and Church important; and diligence in such a case is not only commendable, but necessary. The search of truth is hard, specially being disguised by the colourable shifts of cunning heads: and in such a case, as it is the glory of god to conceal a thing, so it is the King's honour to search out a matter, Prov. 25. 2. And no time so fit for this search as the morning, when men's wits are freshest, and their minds after repose least distracted: Therefore josuah rose early in the morning for the discovery of achan's theft, 7. 16. And beside, the drinking of wine often makes men after meals to forget the law, and pervert the judgement, Pro. 31. 5. Therefore is there a woe pronounced against that Land, whose Princes or chief Magistrates eat in the morning, Eccles. 10. 16; that is, take up that time which is specially allotted for matters of justice, with intemperate and unseasonable eating and drinking. As than he is cursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently: so is he blessed that doth it diligently and watchfully, In matutinis.  
The second thing employed in this word, is speed and dispatch: therefore it follows in the same place of the Prophet jeremy, Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood, 48. 10; that deferreth to do justice when occasion and opportunity is offered, when reason and religion requires it. Delays in other things are not good: but in this they are stark naught, because by delay great offences many times get either friends for protection, or means for evasion; according to a saying of the Italians, Give me time, and give me life. Again, by delay and connivance, small offences grow great: a little fire which at first might have been put out with a spoonful of water, being let to burn, turns towns and cities into ashes, and cannot be quenched with whole rivers. Punishments are as medicines, which if they be kept too long, hazard the Patient, and lose their virtue; And Magistrates as Physicians, who must not let a disease go too long, left by sufferance it prove incurable; which might have been holpen by timely ministering. Lastly, as by delay the offender grows bolder, to the farther endangering and oppressing of the innocent, the infecting of the good, the heartening and hardening of the wicked: So he that should cut him off, many times by tract of time grows colder in his zeal to justice.  
If joab had received condign punishment according to his deserts at his kill of Abner, he would never have grown so audaciously insolent to murder Amasa in such a treacherous manner. And had Absalon been taken short, when by his command his brother Amnon was slain, there had been no danger of his ensuing rebellion against his Sovereign, his Father. It is good then to lance an ulcer betimes, before it grow to a Gangrene; and to kill a Tetter before it spread to a ringworm. That which God commandeth Fathers of families, that if they love their children, they correct them betimes, and chastise them whiles there is hope, Prov. 13. 24, is also required of the fathers of the Commonwealth: Whoseever will not do the law of God and the King, let judgement be executed speedily upon him, Esra, 7. 26. And the reason hereof is yielded by Solomon, Eccles. 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set on mischief.  
Yet is there not more haste to be made than good speed. The celestial spheres, the higher they are in situation, the slower are they in their proper motion: and the supreme judge of the world useth much forbearance & long suffering toward sinners, that so by the riches of his goodness he might draw them to repentance; or because he forseeth, that they will do some notable good work to the advancement of his glory, & the good of his church: Much like, saith Plutarch in that golden Book of his, De sera Numinis vindicta, as the laws ordain that a woman, condemned to death for some heinous offence, be nevertheless reprived and spared, if she be with child, until she be delivered: which being done, the Law is executed upon her. As then the supreme judge in heaven inflicts punishments on offenders without all passion, and with all patience, in due manner, place and season: so should his Vice-gerents on earth, not so much out of desire of revenge, as zeal of justice; For, the wrath of max worketh not the righteousness of God, james 1. 20.  
And as he, which hath no skill in Physic, cannot with reason control a skilful Physician, because he draweth blood from his Patient rather to morrow than to day: so neither ought men to censure the proceedings of God, whose judgements are many times secret, but always right; having feet of lead, but hands of iron: and though he be long a-striking, yet he strikes home at last; tarditatem gravitate compensat, he makes amends for his sloweness with the waightiness of his blow. Nor, among men, aught inferiors too far to censure the proceedings of their superiors; who many times stop the execution of justice, for causes just and reasonable in themselves, though unknown to us. The Heaven for height, & the earth for depth▪ and the heart of the king, is unsearchable, Pro. 25. 3.  
The Law enacted by Theodosius, at the instance of S. Ambrose, cannot be misliked: that because, being transported with choler, he had caused many Innocents' of Thessalonica to be put to the sword; from thenceforth thirty days should pass betwixt the sentence of death and the execution thereof: in as much as the guilty, though spared for a time, might notwithstanding afterwards be executed; but the guiltless, being once executed, could not again be restored. Yet can it not be denied, but upon evident proof and a fair trial, so way be not given to rash & unadvised anger, for many & weighty reasons already touched, it were for the most part better, that expedition in punishing great offences, and cutting off notorious malefactors, were rather used, than slackness.  
Some others there are, who, by this Betimes here mentioned in my Text, understand our Prophet as vowing the execution of justice at his first entrance to the Crown, in the morning of his reign. Like a clean soul coming out of the hands of the Creator, & placed in a Kingdom left by Saul, as in a body altogether unclean, he promiseth, not to draw pollution from it, as the soul doth from the body; but rather to endeavour to cleanse it from those foul impieties wherewith it swarmed: heerin resembling the Sun in the Heavens, which as soon as it riseth, or before it appear, chaseth the darkness before it, and is clothed with glory, as with a robe.  
Heer, reason of State objecteth the danger of sudden innovation, fear of the multitude; and I know not what a number of doubts and difficulties it forecasts: but our Prophet, though doubtless not ignorant of these, yet in a holy resolution casts them behind him; as well knowing, that the principles of humane policy are as uncertain as the brain wherein they are forged; being persuaded in conscience, and his heart telling him, The action itself was good, the throng and thickness of difficulties should not discourage him, but rather make him the more stoutly to pluck up his spirits, and to buckle himself more roundly to the business. It was a sore task he had in hand, a long journey he had to go; and therefore he had need to set forth betime, if he meant to arrive at the end thereof before the night of death should overtake him.  
They were memorable pieces of justice which Solomon did, as soon as God had put the sceptre into his hand. jehu, at his first entrance into the Kingdom, roots out the house of Ahab, and the worship of Baal▪ josiah, when he was now but twelve years old, began to purge judah and jerusalem, 2. Chro. 34; that men might know what they were to trust unto in the succeeding course of his government.  
Yet I take not our Prophet's meaning to be, that the Prince at his first entrance should unwisely and without advice destroy and cut off; for so, perhaps, by seeking to make a way for godliness and virtue, and to banish impiety and vice, he might chance to fall into a mischief more intolerable than the present condition: the remedy might prove worse than the disease.  
In nature we see, that such a body there may be, in which all the blood shall be so corrupted, that, before a man should find any good blood therein, he might (if he would use phlebotomy draw out & take away both the life and last drop together: in such a case, when the corruption is so gross and infinite, a skilful Physician will use Epicrasis, as they call it, labouring to bring the body to a better temperature. He will draw from it at divers times and by divers means; but yet he will take no more but what is needful to unburthen nature: which, being discharged, gathereth vigour to itself again; and evacuateth, by sweeting and other good means, the malignant humours, & at length cleanseth the blood itself: so may ● Prince, in these abundant and superfluous humours of the State, not presently open a vein, lest so perhaps the spirits depart with the blood, and the life go away with the strength, but by degrees; as he may displace corrupt Officers and judges, and substitute better in their rooms: and by this discretion, and God's blessing upon it, he shall see in a short time a conversion of the body of the Commonwealth, without any subversion or trouble to it or in it; a new Kingdom, and yet without any great novelty or change.  
The ship of Delos, so renowned in antiquity for lasting many years and ages without renewing, whence got it that fame? but because, as soon as a plank was in danger or began to rot, they presently provided a new & sound one in the room thereof: And the safest way to restore a decayed State, is, To proceed by the same course; but then there needs constancy and perseverance, singalis matutinis, morning after morning every morning.  
It is not one mornings work: but, as Speed is required for such a work without delay, and Diligence without remissness; so is Constancy, without intermission. It is a common saying, that A new bosom sweepsclean; but it is a true one, that The end crowns the work: for, to begin well and then to give over, or to go on by starts, and not with a constant hand, is the next way to draw on a relapse; which many times proves more dangerous than the original sickness. Many, to win applause, or the better to settle themselves in their regal or imperial Thrones, have begun with wholesome Laws, and strict execution of them: but, within a while they have grown weary, either by despairing the event would answer their purposes, or by giving themselves over to ease and pleasure; and so have lost both their honour with men, and their reward with God. But, as natural motions gather strength in moving: so a reformation begun aright out of a conscience of duty, and a zeal of goodness, though it find some rubs and oppositions at first; yet the farther it wades, the more easy it finds the passage, and the means more ready for the compassing of what it intends.  
Had our King Henry, the last of that name, continued the same course at the last as at first he began with, in the worthy execution of Empson & Dudley, two caterpillars of the State; he had doubtless left more honour to his name, and happily more treasure in his Coffers. Had Nero held-out the residue of his government suitably to his first five years, he might well have marched in equal rank with the best Emperors: but, beginning with an head of gold, & ending in feet of iron & clay, he now stands registered amongst the monsters of mankind. It was constancy which made Augustus truly to affirm of Rome at his death, Lateritiam inveni, marmoream reliqui; I found it Brick, and left it Marble. It was constancy that erected in every corner so many monuments of honour to the memory of Traian, that the great Constantine, succeeding in the Empire about two hundred years after, was wont to call him Herbam parietariam, Pellitory of the wall. And lastly, constancy it was, and holding on in an upright course to the end, that made all judah and jerusalem sorely to mourn at the funerals of the good King josiah; and the singing men and women continually in succeeding ages to remember his name in their lamentations; Whereas it is recorded of some other of that race, who had fair & glorious beginnings, but cloudy & dirty end, that they died without being desired of the people: no man so much as shed a tear at their funerals, or wished them in being again.  
I come from our Prophet's diligence, dispatch, and perseverance, to the work itself; I will destroy, I will cut off: where a question offers itself, Whether it be lawful, or no, to destroy; in what case it is lawful, and to whom it belongs? For the commandment seems to be general, Thou shalt not kill: and so doth the rule, grounded upon the law of Nature, and given before the Moral law, Whoso sheddeth mans●blood, by man shall his blood be shed: and the reason is added; For, in the image of God made he man, Gen. 9 6. And to the law Natural and Moral is added the Evangelicall, All that take the sword shall perish with the sword, Mat. 26. 52: Which passages, notwithstanding the peevishness of anabaptistical interpretations following the letter and not the sense, the rind and and not the pith, are not to be expounded without many limitations and distinctions. For the resolution then of the question, we are to know, that in three cases, which by some are held unlawful, it is lawful to destroy; and in three other cases, by othersome held lawful, is is unlawful to destroy. It is lawful for a man to destroy another, either Se defendenda, in defence of his own person, or in a just and lawful war, or by the sword of the public Magistrate.  
In defence of his own person, in as much as charity begins at home: and being to love our neighbour but as ourselves, the love of ourselves is the rule of the love of our neighbour, and consequently before it in nature; the rule by which a thing is ruled and ordered, being ever in nature before that which is ruled and ordered by it. If then my person be violently assaulted, and my life wrongfully endangered, it is not only lawful but commendable, to endanger or take away the assailants life, for the preservation of mine own: but, if I can by any other means save mine own life without the taking away of his; though it be in the world's account reputed disgraceful, yet am I in Christian charity to make choice of that; which as it teacheth a man to prefer his own life before another's: so doth it also to prefer another man's life before mine own pretended or imaginary reputation.  
Secondly, it is lawful to destroy in a just and lawful war: which is then presumed so to be, when it is commanded by the supreme Magistrate, either for the revenging of outrages committed, or for the repairing of injuries received, or for the recovering of right detained, or for defending of our own country or religion, by the enemy threatened. And though it were to be wished, that, among those who jointly profess the glorious name of jesus, none occasion were offered of destroying one another and spilling of Christian blood, but that they might all join their hearts and hands together in destroying the professed enemies of that name: yet as long as covetousness and ambition are admitted to Counsel, as long as right is measured by might, and private respects are made public quarrels; as long as the Bishop of Rome the eldest son of that Abaddon or Apollion, Revel▪ 9▪ which indeed signifies a Destroyer, proudly challenges to himself those words of jeremy, 1. 10. I have this day set thee over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, and to destroy, as Pius Quintus expressly doth in his declaratory Bull against Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory, and is therein not checked, but applauded by Christian Princes; So long I say▪ such a wish may well pass for an honest and religious desire, though in reason it be never likely to take effect: nay, we are sure that the grand Destroyer himself is at last to be destroyed, even by those Christian Princes whom he employed as instruments for the destruction of others. The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, are they that shall hate the whore, and make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire, for God hath put into their hearts to fulfil his will, Revel. 17. 16. 17. We are then to follow peace with all men; but none otherwise then as peace is joined with holiness: for what peace can there be as long as the whoredoms and witchcrafts of that jezabel remain yet in such abundance? War then is to be preferred to such a Peace, where a Land may justly complain, 
— Longae pacis patimur mala: Saevior armis,  
Luxuria incumbit—   
The third sort of Lawful destroying is, by the sword of the public Magistrate, in the execution of justice upon notorious malefactors; for he beareth it not in vain, but is the minister of God to take vengeance upon him that doth evil, Rom. 13. 4. And of this it is that our Prophet (being then by God's ordinance designed to be his Vicegerent on earth) chiefly speaks in this place, I will destroy, I will cut off. And with him agrees the wise Solomon, Prov. 20. 26, A wise King scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them. It is not only justice but wisdom, sometime to cut off and destroy: First, that others may thereby be admonished to walk more warily. Thus the disobedient son must be brought forth and stoned to death, That all Israel might hear and fear, Deut. 21. As the thunderbolt falleth with the danger of few, but with the fear of all: So Poena ad paucos, metus ad omnes: the terror of public executions reacheth farther than the punishment; for the fear extends to all, but the punishment to few: and howsoever it be true, that the better sort be directed by love, yet the greater sort are corrected by fear. A man that stands by, and sees one that is wounded, seared, or lanced, is thereby made more careful of his own health: and in like manner the beholding a malefactor to be brought to deserved punishment, makes men more wary how they run into the like courses. It was a true saying in the general of the Proconsul to Cyprian at his martyrdom, though ill applied to him in particular, In sanguine tuo caeteri discent disciplinam; In thy blood the rest will learn discipline.  
Secondly, the cutting off of the wicked causeth the good to lead a more quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty: who if they should be permitted to live and enjoy their liberty, we should neither meet quietly in our assemblies, nor dwell quietly in our houses, nor walk quietly in our streets, nor travail quietly in our ways, nor labour quietly in our fields. In better terms stands that State where nothing, then where all things are lawful: and it is no less cruelty to spare all, than to spare none. For, he that spares one bad, thereby injuries many good: which gave occasion to the Proverb, Foolish pity mars the City; and to the saying of Domitius, that he had rather seem cruel in punishing, than dissolute in sparing.  
Many, saith Saint Augustine, call that cruelty, when for love of discipline the fault committed is revenged by the punishment of the offender; whereas the Sentence of him that punisheth satisfieth the law, and redoundeth to the good not only of them that are present, but even of them that are yet unborn. So that severity used in this case, Vtilitate publica rependitur, is paid home and recompensed with public benefit. Yea, but though he be a malefactor, say some, yet is he a personable man, of an excellent wit, and good parentage; and is it not pity to cast away such a man? To which may justy be replied, Is it not more pity, that a proper man should undo a profitable man, that a witty man should hurt an honest man, that he who hath good parentage should spoil him that hath good virtues to serve the Commonwealth? To cut off such a wicked person then by the stroke of justice, is not to castaway a man; but to preserve mankind: and better it is, Vt unus pereat quam ut unitas; that one single person should suffer, than a whole Society: 
— Truncatur & artus,  
Vt liceat reliquis securum vivere m●bris.   
Thirdly, as by sparing wicked and wilful transgressors, the wrath of God is provoked, and his judgements pulled down upon a Nation: So by cutting them off, as by an acceptable sacrifice his wrath is appeased, and his favour procured. If blood were shed in the Land, and the murderer not put to death, the whole Land was thereby defiled, and made liable to God's displeasure, Num. 35. 33. When Achan had stolen the consecrated thing, the wrath of the Lord was so kindled against all the Host of Israel, that they could not stand, but were discomfited before their enemies: but as soon as Achan with those that belonged unto him were stoned to death, the Lord turned from his fierce wrath against Israel; so that whereas, before, their enemies chased and smote them, now they achieved many great and famous victories, jos. 7. So long as the murder committed by Saul upon the Gibeonites was unpunished, there was sent a grievous famine upon the Land of Israel three years together: but as soon as Saul's seven sons were hanged at the motion of the Gibeonites, God was appeased with the Land.  
Two notable examples to this purpose we have recorded by Plutarch: the one in the life of Romulus, the other of Camillus. When Romulus K. of Rome, & Tatius K. of the Sabines, after cruel war had made their composition to govern the Romans & Sabines jointly, there fell a strange kind of plague and famine in the Cities of Rome and Laurentum, for two murders committed by the Romans and Laurentines: the one by the kinsmen of Tatius upon certain Ambassadors of Laurentum; which murder Tatius neglected to punish: and the other by the friends of the said Ambassadors upon Tatius in revenge of the injustice done by his kinsmen, and suffered by him. Whereupon it being noted that the plague and famine increased strongly in both Cities, and a common opinion conceived that it was a punishment of God upon them for those murders committed and not punished, they resolved to do justice upon the offenders: which being once done, the plague ceased presently in both places.  
The same Author likewise ascribeth the Sack of Rome by the Gauls, to the just judgement of God upon the Romans, for two injustices done by them: the first was the unjust banishment of Camillus; the second, the refusal to punish certain Ambassadors of their own, who being sent to treat peaceably with the Gauls, on the behalf of the Clusians, committed acts of hostility against them, contrary to the law of arms: And when the Gauls sent to Rome to demand reparation of the injury, the Romans not only refused to give them satisfaction; but also made made their Ambassadors, who had done the injury, Generals of an Army to assist the Clusians against them, notwithstanding that the Foeciales (officers ordained by Numa Pompilius to determine of the lawful causes of Peace and War) made great instance to the Senate, that the Ambassadors might be punished, lest the penalty of their fault might otherwise fall upon the Commonwealth: as indeed it did. For the Gauls, giving battle to the Ambassadors, overthrew them; and prosecuting their victory, spoilt and sacked Rome itself, under the conduct & command of Brennus, their chief Leader, and as some write a Britain.  
Wherein I wish to be noted, how grievous a sin it is in the opinion of the very Paynims themselves, and how dangerous to the Commonwealth, to neglect and omit the punishment of notorious malefactors, whereby the offences of particular men are made the sins of the whole State, and draw the wrath and punishment of God upon the same: And as upon the whole State, so chiefly upon his person and posterity to whose place and office it belongs to see justice done. It is a true saying, judex damnatur, cum nocens abs●luitur, the judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved; and Qui non vetat peccare cum potest, iubet: He that doth not restrain a man (when it is his duty, and it lies in his power) doth command him to sin. He that saith to the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, Prov. 24. 24. And in another place, He that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, 17. 15. So that whereas they think by this means to win estimation with men, they make themselves odious both to God and men. Saul was punished with the loss of his kingdom, for not punishing Agag with death, 1. Sam. 15. And Ahab, for sparing Benhadab, had a sharp greeting sent him, 1. King. 20. Because thou hast let go out of thine hand a man whom I appointed to die, thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. And many times we see by experience, that a desperate wicked man, reserved from due punishment, proves a continual vexation unto him that hath spared him: As, the nations that inhabited the Land of Canaan, being not cast out and destroyed by the Israelites as God had commanded them, became by his just judgement a snare & destruction unto them▪ a whip on their sides, and a thorn in their eyes, jos. 23. 13. judges 2. 3.   

Verse 8. I will early destroy all the wicked of the Land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord.  
HItherto of the three kinds of lawful destroying, by some fantastical and anabaptistical spirits held unlawful. Now, it remains, that I speak of three other unlawful kinds of destroying, by some irreligious and profane spirits held lawful; whereof, the first is self homicide, the destroying of a man's self, the cutting off the thread of his own life with his own hands. The second is, destroying of another by Duel, in single combat; whether he send or accept the challenge, it matters not. The third, is the destroying of a subject by the sword, and at the command of a civil Magistrate, only for reason of State, or politic respects, without due order of law, or course of justice.  
First, then of the first; of the unlawfulness of a man's destroying himself, whether it be for the shunning of shame, or grief, or misery, or sin. Our Prophet himself was often brought into great distress, marvelous straits & plunges, both bodily and ghostly, as may appear by his doleful complaints throughout this book of Psalms: Yet would he not destroy himself thereby to be rid of them. Saul, who would not destroy Agag, destroyed himself: but David voweth to destroy the wicked; himself he would not destroy. Paul, though he had fightings without, and terrors within, and desires to be dissolved; yet dissolve himself, or hasten his dissolution he would not. job, though scourged with unmatchable chastisements, yet he would not move from his station without his General's command, he would not change himself, but patiently wait all the days of his appointed time, until his changing came, 14. 14.  
It was a worthy speech which josephus the jew made to his Soldiers, being in a cave, where they lay hid after they lost the City jotapata, taken by Vespasian; they, rather than they would bear the disgrace of being taken by the enemy, would needs make an end of themselves: like Fannius, of whom the Poet, Hîcrog●, Non furor est ne m●riare m●ri?  
Yet some might perhaps commend this resolution: but what saith the good josephus, to persuade them to the contrary? The Almighty hath given unto us our life as a most precious jewel: he hath shut it and sealed it up in this earthen vessel, and given it us to be kept, till he himself 〈◊〉 ask for it again: we are neither to deny it when he shall require it, nor to cast it forth till he command it. Among other reasons for which the Books of the Maccabees are held Apocryphal, this is not the least, that they commend 〈◊〉 his destroying of himself, as a manful and noble act; whereas indeed it is the truest sign of a mind truly 〈◊〉, like a Cube to stand upright in all fortunes.  
Fortiter ille facit, qui miser esse potest.  
The second kind of unlawful destroying, by too many held lawful, is the kill of another in Duel: not such as our Prophet himself undertook with Goliath the Philistine, by public authority from the State, and for the public good of the State; but when men for private revenge, & righting their conceived or pretended wrongs, either send or accept a challenge for single combat, all the Soap and Niter in the world cannot wash away the guilt of blood from this practice: whatsoever men pretend heerin, either for the trial of manhood, or the putting-by the imputation of cowardice, or for the maintenance of reputation, it cannot excuse in this case. And howsoever the world applaud it many times with terms of worth, of gallantry, of brave spiritednes, and the like; yet is it doubtless no better than murder in God's account; and disloyalty to the civil Magistrate, by wresting the sword out of his hand, and taking his office from him. Sin then against God is more to be feared, than shame amongst men; and true Christianity to be preferred before the opinion of such foolhardy courage.  
Think not, I read a Lecture of baseness: since true valour consists not in quarrelling & brabbling for private injuries, or in stabbing for a word of disgrace; but in maintenance of God's honour, in preserving thy allegiance to thy Prince, in safegarding thy Country. He may well be reckoned among Martyrs, who upon conscience and knowledge engageth himself upon these occasions.  
Was Augustus Caesar a coward in the repute of the Heathen, when, receiving a challenge from Anthony, he returned him this answer; that, if Anthony had a disposition to die, or were weary of his life, there were ways enough else to death besides that? The challenge was rejected, and yet his honour untainted.  
I will shut up this point with an excellent speech of Bernard's concerning unjust fightings; and in that number I esteem these: If in thy fight thou hast a mind to kill another man, and then art slain fight, thou diest a murderer: if thou prevail, and kill the other, thou livest a murderer. Whether then thou live or die, be'st conquered or Conqueror, it is not good to be a murderer. So that the conclusion is, that, which way soever it fall out, murder it is before God. Miserable for a man to be slain, and so to go to his reckoning while he is maliciously labouring to take away another's life: as miserable, if he kill, to be continually haunted with the guilt of blood. All the fame and commendation of doing it upon fair terms, cannot countervail that vexation.  
I have the rather touched this point, for that it is one of the evils of our times; many scarce accounting themselves men, till they have made a brawl, and (like the Youngsters of Helkethhazzurim) sheathed their swords in their fellow's bowels: whereby the Land is becomne a very Acheldama, a Field of blood. The more are we to bless God, who hath put it in the mind of our David, not any way to countenance these Cutters, but to range them among those wicked ones whom he hath vowed to destroy and cut off.  
The third kind of unlawful destroying, by some held lawful, is the cutting off of a Subject by the sword, or at the command of the civil Magistrate, for politic or private respects, without just cause and due desert. Almighty God, who out of the earth moulded man, and breathed into him the spirit of life, might (as an absolute Lord of life and death) take that breath again from him, & turn him into dust, or into nothing, at his pleasure: but his Vicegerents on earth have no such transcendent power; their commission being confined to the rules of justice and religion: the observation whereof is undoubtedly the fairest and safest course they can take. Vriah was David's Subject: yet when the King had cunningly caused him to be placed by joab in the forefront of the battle, and upon a sudden retreat to fall by the sword of the Ammonite; in sense of this unjust act he afterwards cries out, Deliver me from blo●d-guiltiness, O God. Naboth was ahab's Subject: yet, because Letters were written in the King's Name, and his Seal was set to them for the putting of Naboth to death, the Prophet Eliah is bid to charge him with the murder; Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? Neither doth Ahab plead his power over Naboth, or Naboths' subjection unto him; but, by humbling of himself, seems to acknowledge his guiltiness.  
There is nothing that makes a man to be more accounted of amongst all men, than, being accountable to no man for his actions, so to carry himself (specially in the destroying and cutting off of men) as if he were ready to yield account of his proceedings to all men. There is nothing that wins more hearty affection, and inward both reverence and obedience, than when a man may uncontrouleably and without check do what he list, to do no more than what is lawful and justifiable.  
Ne tibi quid liceat, sed quid fecisse decebit,  
Occurrat, mentemq●e domet respectus honesti.  
And as the Panegyrist speaks of The●d●sius, Idem es qui fuisti, & tantum tibi per te licet quantum per leges antea licebat: ius summum facultate & c●pia commodandi▪ non securitate peccandi, experiris. Whereunto the strongest motive to induce a mind possessed with the sense of religion and the fear of God, is, that no earthly throne is so high, but that it hath a superior throne in heaven, from which it was derived, to which it is subordinate, and by which it must be judged: and the less it is liable to humane censure, the more strict and severe either in this world, or in the next, or in both, must it in reason expect the divine.  
Si genus humanum & mortalia temnitis arma,  
At sperate Deum memorem fandi at que nefandi.  
Therefore our Prophet adds, I will destroy, I will cut off: but whom? the wicked of the Land, the workers of iniquity: which is my third general part, the Object upon whom this severe justice is to be done.  
It is as great abomination, saith Solomon, Prov. 17. 15, In the sight of God to condemn the just, as it is to justify the wicked: And the Prophet Esay 5. 23, pronounceth as great a woe against him that taketh away the righteousness of the righteous from him, as against him that justifieth and absolveth the wicked for a reward. As than special care must be had, that the innocent do not suffer with the guilty, or as the guilty: So specially that their blood be not spilt, and their life unjustly destroyed. Know for certain (says the Prophet jeremy) that if ye put me to death, ye shall bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this City, and upon the inhabitants thereof, 26. 14. Thereby implying that God would avenge his blood, not only upon the murderers themselves, but upon the people; the whole Land should be guilty of it.  
Manasses was a 〈◊〉 murderer, he shed innocent blood exceeding much, till he replenished jerusalem from corner to corner, 2. King. 21. But mark how fearfully God revenges this sin in his posterity. In the days of jehoachim, the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Aramites, and bands of the M●abites, and bands of the Ammonites, and he sent them against judah to destroy it; For the sins of Manasses, and for the innocent blood that he had shed: as it is expressed in the 24. of the same book. Manasses was dead and rotten long before this time, yet we see God had not forgotten that sin; but the whole Land smarted in the third generation after him. So likewise joash most unkindly caused Zachariah the son of good jehoiada to be stoned to death, because he reproved him for his Idolatry. But see what followed. When the year was out, the Host of Aram came uppe against him, and they came against judah and jerusalem, and destroyed all the Princes of the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the King of Damascus: though the army of Aram came with a small company of men, yet the Lord delivered a very great army into their hands. After this, the King himself was smitten with great diseases, and at last his own servants conspired against him, and slew him in his bed. And the reason of all these fearful judgements is given there by the holy Ghost, For the blood of the children of jehoiada the Priest.  
It is memorable, that which Procopius an Historian reports, touching Theodorick King of the Goths; how that having slain Bo●thius and Symmachus, two both noble and innocent persons, the guilt of that horrible fact cleaving close to him, he had a strong imagination that the head of a certain fish which was set upon his table, was the head of Symmachus, gaping and yawning upon him: The very conceit whereof struck him into such a quaking fit, as was the beginning of an extreme sickness, upon which he shortly died.  
Now, as he vows to destroy the wicked, and none but them: so doth he all them; my fourth general part, His indifferent and unpartial proceeding, I will destroy all, I will cut off all. Not that he thought it possible to root out all; but that he would do his best to leave none.  
The magistrate herein is to imitate God, whose deputy he is, & whose person he represents: And as he communicates with God in his name, so should he in his nature; Who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, 1. Pet. 1. 17. Though Coniah were as the signet upon his finger, yet would he pluck him thence, jeremy 22. 24. And as his practice is, so is his precept: Ye shall have one law, it shall be as well for the stranger, as the borne in the country. The stranger if he deserve favour, must have it as much as if he were borne in the country: and he that is borne in the country must be punished as severely as if he were a stranger.  
Tros Tyriusue mihi nullo discrimine aget●r.  
If a son be stubborn and disobedient, the Parents themselves must bring him forth to the judges, that they may sentence him, & the people stone him, Deut. ●1. If a brother, if a daughter, if a wife offend in some cases, they are not to be spared, Deut. 13. And therefore Asa, King of judah, is commended for his uprightness in this respect, that when Maacha, his own mother, committed Idolatry, he would not spare her, but deposed her from her Regency, 1. King. 15. And indeed it is truly said, justitia non novit patrem, non novit matrem, veritatem novit: justice neither knoweth father, nor mother, but only the truth.  
It is reported by a late Traveller, that in Zant over the place of judgement, where all causes both Criminal and Civil are decided, there are these two Latin verses written on the wall, in letters of gold: 
Hic locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, h●norat,  
Nequitiam, pacem, crimina, i●ra, bonos.   
This place hateth wickedness, loveth peace, punisheth offences, preserveth the laws, honoureth the good; implying that there should be no partiality used, but every man should be proceeded withal according to his deserts.  
To which purpose, was that memorable speech of our King Henry the fourth of that name; who when his eldest son, the Prince, was by the L. chief justice, for some great misdemeanours, commanded and committed to prison, he thanked God that he had both a son of that obedience, and a judge of such unpartial and undaunted courage.  
But Agesilaus was as much to blame, who when he commended a friend of his to the judge, he moved him that if his cause were good, he would absolve him for justice sake; if not, at his motion: but howsoever the world went, absolved he must be be; an ill example of dangerous consequence, in him who was to be a pattern of indifferent justice to his inferior judges: among whom we find that too often true, which the heathen Orator complained of, in his times; Omnium Sermone percrebuit, It is rife in every man's mouth, In his iudiciis quae nunc sunt, pecuniosum hominem quamvis sit nocens, neminem posse damnari: That in these judgements which are nowadays, a moneyed man though he be guilty, cannot be condemned. Nihil tam sanctum quod non violari, nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecuniâ possit, There is nothing so holy that may not be violated, nothing so well fenced, that may not be overthrown with money; the laws being made like unto cobwebs, which catch and hold little ●lyes, but the great ones break through them. Blasphemy, and perjury, & sacrilege, and simony, and extortion, and oppression, and usury, and exeessive bribery pass currant; when petty thievery in case of extreme necessity is most severely punished.  
The fif● and last point I proposed, is the End our Prophet proposeth to himself of this great work here vowed, It is the purging of the City of the Lord: whereby is meant jerusalem. First, for example to the whole Realm, it being the Metropolis and head City of the Kingdom, as also and principally by reason the service of God, and the exercise of religion, was in a special mann●r by divine ordinance tied unto it: in which regard he calls it the City of the Lord, as the Evangelist doth the holy City, Mat. 4.  
This City was so large, that it con●●●●ed of four quarters▪ every one of them by walls divided from another. The first and highest was mount Zion: in it was the City of David, called by ●osephus the superior City, exceeding strong in regard of the natural situation thereof. The second was called the Daughter of Zion, because it seemed to come out as it were of the bosom of the other; and in this was mount Moriah, whereupon the Temple stood: This City was compassed with a strong wal●, wherein stood threescore Towers. The third was beautified with many ample streets, & fair buildings, compassed with a wall wherein were fourteen Towers. The fourth was inhabited by all sorts of Artificers, compassed with the third wall which was twenty five cubits high, and had in it fourscore and ten strong Towers. So populous withal it was, that during the siege of the Romans in the space of five months there were slain and died, as josephus there present reports it, to the number of eleven hundred thousand. Now, albeit in our Prophet's days this City was not yet brought to this perfection, yet was it then very spacious and populous: notwithstanding which greatness of the place and disordered multitude of the inhabitants, yet by God's help he undertakes the reformation.  
It is a thing which we ought to bear away: for, it meeteth with the idleness and litherness of many, who imagine that it is impossible to reform a great City: yea, if it be but a little market-town, it is impossible (say they) that all should be well there. Yea, this excuse is pretended by such as have but small families in comparison: and so, under a colour of this impossibility to reform all, they do almost just nothing; no, not so much as the laws put into their hands, and command them to do. Yet these men have but as it were a postern gate in jerusalem to keep: what think you would they do, if they had the charge of so great and large a City? True it is, let Officers do their best, there will be much disorder: what will it be then when they do little or nothing, in respect of any care to weed out sin? but rather bolster it out, take part with lewd companions, give them countenance, speak and write for them, yea keep them company; men fit rather to be overseen and guided continually by others, than to be in authority to see or guide any. But let such as be in office do their duty, executing the good laws put into their hands by higher authority, and then not doubt of the impossibility of reforming abuses in their lesser charges; seeing David, trusting upon the help of God, is so confident touching this great & populous City. Let them but put-to their endeavours, and they shall find such success in the advancement of godliness and suppressing of impiety, many times even beyond hope and expectation, as they will see cause to rejoice in the performance of their duty, and to praise God for his blessing upon it.  
Again: David, vowing to reform this City, meaneth not to stay there, but to proceed to the cleansing & purging of the whole Land. This no doubt he might think, that if jerusalem were reform, it would be a great light and direction to the whole Kingdom: as we see how it falleth out; lesser places look to those that be● greater, and the meaner sort look to those that be● higher, from whom also there is 〈◊〉 force to draw inferiors either to good or evil.  
Above maiori discit are are minor.  
A great town or a great house well ordered may fitly be compared to a great garden full of sweet flowers, which yieldeth much good ●avour and prospect to the neighbours: if they be ill ordered, they be like great dunghills, noisome and contagious to such as dwell about. A great town or a great Personages house, if they be good, do much good to the Country: but, if they be naught and sinful, the poison of them is strong, and the infection dangerous.  
It is then a work worthy a King, to begin the reformation of his State, with purging the head-city of his Kingdom: where, by reason of the confluence of foreign nations & all sorts of people, vice must needs abound; but specially, because head-cities (for the most part) by Monopolies, and Companies, and Corporations, and I know no●●hat devices, labour to draw to themselves the whole treasure of the Land: and if the blood should all be drawn from the other members to the head, it would both distemper the head, and starve the members. The head-city than is so to be respected, that inferior cities and towns be not neglected; but an indifferent hand to be extended to them all, lest one in time swallow the other, as the greater fishes devour the lesser.  
The last thing we are to observe, is, that he would begin his reformation in the City of the lord Of the Lord. His meaning is, with matter of religion; it being therefore called the City of the Lord, because, as he had chosen the Land of Canaan out of all the world to be the portion of his people▪ so out of all Canaan he chose jerusalem, to place his Name and Tabernacle there (the Temple being not yet built) and in the Tabernacle the Ark of the Covenant; a special sacrament of his presence. This, our Prophet expresseth yet more clearly in another Psalm, 122. 9, Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to d●o thee good. Among other main and weighty matters then pertaining to the Prince's charge, the care of GOD's truth and Church must be the chiefest. For, should the bodies, goods and credits of men be preserved; and the honour and glory of GOD be neglected? Should earthly ease be so much in request; and heavenly bliss so little in desire? Fear we the ruin of all things, where injuries and violences by men are not repressed by the prince's sword; and doubt we no danger where idolatry, heresy, ath e●sm and blasphemy against God, go unpunished? Is God's hand shortened, that he cannot strike? or his will altered, that he will honour those that dishonour him, and bless them that hate him?  
It is a Romish error, repugnant to the word of God, and to the examples of the best Kings and Monarches before and since Christ, to restrain Princes from protecting and promoting the true worship of GOD within their Realms. Neither hath the man of sin more grossly betrayed his pride and rage in any thing, than in abasing the honour, and abusing the power, and impugning this right of Princes, by making them his Bailiffs and Sergeants to attend and accomplish his will, and not meddle with supporting the truth, or reforming the Church farther than he listeth; that, whiles they command their subjects bodies, he might command their souls, the better half: which, commanding the body, will quickly upon occasion draw that after it; as reason shows, and experience teacheth.  
It is rightly observed, that, after the Bishop of Rome had once fully engrossed the Imperial power, there was never since Emperor of strength, or Pope of virtue: so they lost both by it. And indeed, as the blood, if it fall any way out of the veins too much, there is some danger; but, if it fall into the body extra vasa, there is more danger, for it will corrupt and putrefy: so was it with the supreme authority of Princes, when they suffered it to fall into the Clergy, as it were extra vasa: but their Sceptres and Thrones, allowed them by God, are sufficient proofs that they may and must make laws and execute judgement, as well for godliness and honesty (which by the Apostles rule are within the compass and charge of their Commission) as for peace and tranquillity. God hath given them two hands, to be Custodes utriusque tabulae; Upholders of both the tables: from observing this, no man may draw them; since for neglecting this, no man shall excuse them.  
They must not be careful in humane things, and careless in divine: God ought to be served and honoured by them, that is, by their Princely power and care, as much afore men, as his truth and glory excelleth the peace and welfare of men. It wanteth many degrees of a Christian government to look to the keeping of things that must perish, and to leave the souls of men as an open prey to impiety and irreligion. And if Princes provide not this for their Subjects, peace, and traffic, and such like makes no better provision for them, than is made for Oxen in good pasture; nay, not so good. For an Ox hath therein all he needeth; but a man without this left altogether unprovided in his far nobler and better part.  
And as Princes without this Care provide not well for their people: so they provide but ill for themselves, in as much as they can have no certain assurance of the loyalty and allegiance of their subjects without it; since nothing can cast a sure knot on the conscience for the firm binding of it, but the true knowledge and fear of God. So that where Princes advance the good of God's house, they establish the good of their own all in one.  
Lastly, it is to be observed, that in all the Kings of Israel and judah, their stories begin with this observation, as with a thing worthy to be chronicled in the first place, how they dealt in matter of religion. Such a King, and such a King: and what did he? He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; and such a King, he walked in the ways of jeroboam the son of Nebat. I spare to cite places: but it is the general observation of those books of Kings and Chronicles; as they that read them know: yea farther, it may be marked, that God hath always humbled Princes, & even poured contempt upon them, when they have contemned the messengers and forsaken or forgotten the house of the Lord.  
For the preventing whereof, it shall not be amiss for them to consult with Churchmen, specially in Church affairs; as the wise, the good King David in all his weighty businesses, but specially in matters touching religion and the service of God, still used the counsel and direction either of Gad or Nathan, Prophets, or of Abiathar and Hiram, chief Priests. It went well with joash, as long as jehoiada his trusty Counsellor lived: but when jehoiadah died, the King's goodness died with him. Then came the Princes of judah, and made obeisance to the King, and the King harkened unto them, and they left the house of the Lord God of their Fathers, and served Groves and Idols, and wrath came upon judah and jerusalem, because of this their trespass, 2. Chron. 24. 17. 18.  
Give the King thy judgements O God, and thy righteousness unto the Kings Son.  
FINIS.